Ali Ünal, Zaman
Medium:Print
Charge:Anti-State
Imprisoned:August 14, 2016

Police detained Ali Ünal, a former columnist for the shuttered daily newspaper Zaman, at his house in the western province of Usak on August 14, 2016, as part of a sweeping purge of suspected followers of exiled preacher Fethullah Gülen, according to press reports. The government accuses Gülen of maintaining a terrorist organization and "parallel state structure" (or FETÖ/PDY, as the government calls it) within Turkey that it blames for orchestrating a failed military coup on July 15, 2016.

Authorities transferred Ünal to a detention facility in Istanbul on August 15, 2016, CNN Turk reported, and a court in Istanbul arraigned the journalist the following day on accusations of "being a member of an armed terrorist organization," "aiding a [terrorist] organization," and "making propaganda for a [terrorist] organization," according to press reports, which did not identify the name of the detention center where he was held.

A court in March 2016 ordered the government to appoint trustees to manage Feza Media Group, which formerly published Zaman, saying the company had links to FETÖ/PDY. The government then used emergency powers it assumed after the failed July 2016 coup attempt to order the newspaper closed by decree on July 27, 2016.

Since July 2016, police have arrested dozens of former Zaman journalists on terrorism charges, citing their former employment at the newspaper as evidence.

As of late 2016, CPJ had not been able to reach Ünal's lawyer or examine records of his court hearings or interrogation. CPJ was unable to determine where the journalist is jailed.

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