Murderers set free in Turkey as more journalists rot in jail

As coronavirus gets out of control in Turkey, at least 45,000 Turkish prisoners could be temporarily released from jail because of a law passed by Turkey's parliament on April 14. This is supposedly to help stop the spread of coronavirus.

Among those released so far is Alaattin Cakici, a radical ultra-nationalist who murdered his ex-wife in 1995.

But who are not included from this temporary amnesty?

Journalists and political opponents of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

In fact, not only are they not included in being temporarily released from prison, but rather Erdoğan's campaign against journalists who do not follow his propaganda are being rounded up and jailed - at a time when murderers are being released.

According to Turkey's Cumhuriyet, OdaTV's News Manager and newspaper writer Barış Terkoğlu, OdaTV Editor-in-Chief Barış Pehlivan, OdaTV volunteer reporter Hülya Kılınç, Editor of Yeniçağ newspaper, Yeni Çağ columnist Murat Ağırel, Yeni Yaşam Managing Editor Aydın Keser and Editor-in-Chief Ferhat Çelik have been sentenced to prison for 8 to 17 years.

In the indictment prepared by the Istanbul Public Prosecutor's Office, the journalists were charged with “Explaining Information That Should Be Confidential Regarding The Security and Political Benefits of the State” and “Accusations Of Revealing Information And Documents Related To Intelligence Activity."

According to Libyan sources, the reason for the arrest of Terkoğlu and Kılınç is because they revealed that a Turkish intelligence officer was killed in Libya along with several Turkish soldiers who are aiding Muslim Brotherhood and jihadist forces.

Turkey is one of the lowest ranked countries for media freedoms in the world, is the second most susceptible country surveyed on the European continent and its surroundings to fake news, has the most journalists jailed in the whole world, and 90% of media is government controlled.

As Turkey's defence of jihadist forces in Libya has been an utter failure, it is attempting to silence those who reveal just how badly Erdoğan failed in his military adventurism and invasion of the North African country.

However Turkey is not just arresting those who reveal their failure in Libya, but also those who question the true case and death numbers caused by coronavirus.

Turkey has admitted to over 107,000 cases and 2,700 deaths, but many scientists, doctors, journalists and social media users have disputed this number, believing it to be much higher.

In an effort to crackdown on those revealing the true nature of how coronavirus has crippled Turkey, at least 410 social media users have been arrested, along with journalists.

This will of course receive little to no international condemnation and just shows how dictatorial Erdoğan's Turkey is.