Ayse Nazli Ilicak, Özgür Düsünce, Can Erzincan TV
Medium:Print, Television
Charge:Anti-State
Imprisoned:July 26, 2016

Police in the coastal town of Bodrum detained Ayse Nazli Ilicak-a former commentator for the pro-opposition daily newspaper Özgür Düsünce and Can Erzincan TV who is better known by her pen name, Nazli Ilicak-on July 26, 2016, and transferred her to Istanbul for questioning as part of a sweeping purge of journalists and others suspected of following 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.

Özgür Düsünce and Can Erzincan TV were among the more than 100 newspapers, broadcasters, news agencies, and magazines the Turkish government ordered closed by decree on July 27, 2016, using emergency powers it assumed after the attempted coup, saying the media outlets were FETÖ/PDY mouthpieces, according to Turkey's Official Gazette.

Istanbul's Fifth Court of Penal Peace on July 30, 2016, arraigned Ilicak and 16 other journalists, ordering them jailed pending trial on charges of "being members of an armed terrorist organization," according to the media monitoring group P24. The daily newspaper Hürriyet reported that the 17 journalists were questioned by prosecutors on accusations of "being members of an armed terrorist organization," "founding or leading an armed terrorist organization," "knowingly and willingly helping [a terrorist] organization without being involved in the organization's hierarchical structure," and "committing crimes in the name of a [terrorist] organization without being a member."

Ilicak is at Bakirköy Women's Prison in Istanbul, pending trial, according to press reports. CPJ was unable to gain access to court documents or other official sources by late year.

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