2016 prison census - Turkey: Ahmet Altan

Police first arrested Altan, a well-known novelist and journalist, alongside his brother, economics professor and columnist Mehmet Altan, on September 10, 2016, on suspicion they were followers of exiled preacher Fethullah Gülen, whom the Turkish government accuses of maintaining a terrorist organization and "parallel state structure" within Turkey - the Fethullah Gülen Terror Organization, or FETÖ, as the government calls it - and of staging a failed military coup on July 15, 2016.

Early on September 22, 2016, Istanbul's 10^th Court of Penal Peace ordered Ahmet Altan released on probation and banned him from international travel. The same court ordered his brother Mehmet jailed, pending trial.

Prosecutors successfully appealed Ahmet Altan's release to the court that originally ordered his arrest, Istanbul's First Court of Penal Peace, whichpromptly issued a second arrest warrant. On September 22, after a few hours of freedom, Ahmet returned to the prosecutor's office to turn himself in.

According to arrest order, a copy of which was published by news website T24, prosecutors considered his duty as the founding editor of the daily newspaper Taraf as evidence he was part of the Gülenist network. Altan left his post at Taraf in 2012. The government used emergency powers it gave itself after the coup attempt to shut down Taraf by decree on July 27, 2016.

Prosecutors accused Altan of being in contact with "FETÖ members" and of acting with them for the same aim under the group's purported hierarchy. Prosecutors also asserted that Taraf was established to fulfill the organization's aims, and that the stories printed in the newspaper were "in the line with orders and instructions from the group." They cited his reporting on alleged conspiracies that saw dozens of soldiers tried for plotting against the government as evidence that he participated in the takeover of the military by Gülen's group.

"Daily Taraf took an active role in the crime of attempting to topple the government... and made efforts to influence public opinion," prosecutors alleged, according to the order to jail Altan. They cited the government's decree shuttering Taraf as evidence that the newspaper was tied to FETÖ.

Altan is also accused of criticizing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Can Erzincan TV based on instructions from FETÖ, and of trying to influence public opinion to conform to the group's aims. The government used emergency powers shut down Can Erzincan by decree on July 27.

Prosecutors said they believed Altan knew about the attempted coup in advance because of his July 14 comments on Can Erzincan TV, where he appeared with his brother and journalist Nazli Ilicak, and two of Altan's columns.

The state quoted a May 2016 column headlined "Absolute Fear," in which Altan wrote, "I assume we are watching the final act of a bad play. The cost is a little heavy... but it is good to know that it will end."

Prosecutors also cited a June 2016 column headlined, "Walking All Over," in which the journalist wrote, "When the walls of the palace are demolished by shells, people with guns will kill themselves in the corridors, and he will understand what civil war is, but he will be too late."

Altan has not been indicted, and no trial date had been set as of late 2016.