Turkey frees 2 journalists from jail after high court ruling

Can Dundar, right, the editor-in-chief of opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet, and Erdem Gul, left, the paper’s Ankara representative. AP FILE PHOTO

ANKARA, Turkey — Two journalists imprisoned for their reports on alleged government arms smuggling to Syria have been released from jail hours after Turkey’s highest court ruled that their rights were violated.

Cumhuriyet newspaper’s editor-in-chief Can Dundar and the paper’s Ankara representative, Erdem Gul, were released from a prison in the outskirts of Istanbul early on Friday. They were greeted by a large group of supporters.

They were jailed in November, months after Cumhuriyet published what it said were images of Turkish trucks carrying ammunition to Syrian militants. The paper said the images proved that Turkey was smuggling arms to rebels — a charge the government rejects.

Dundar called the court’s ruling a historic decision.

Prosecutors were seeking life prison terms for the two on terror and spying charges.

READ: Hundreds protest jailing of 2 journalists in Turkey