Turkey has released more than 120 people who were detained during last month’s mass anti-government protests.
Courts in Istanbul released 127 defendants on bail, most of them university students, who were arrested at their homes on March 24th after taking part in demonstrations sparked by the jailing of the city’s opposition mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu.
Mr Imamoglu, who was arrested on March 19th on charges of corruption and terrorism, is seen as the main challenger to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s 22-year rule.
His imprisonment has been widely viewed as politically motivated and sparked nationwide protests.
The government insists Turkey’s judiciary is independent and free of political influence.
More than 2,000 people were detained for taking part in the country’s largest mass demonstrations in more than a decade.
Of those, some 300 people were jailed awaiting trial. Those freed on Thursday are charged with participating in banned protests.
One court released 102 suspects, many of them students with upcoming exams, after considering the time they had spent in prison and the low risk of absconding, and on condition of not travelling abroad.
Another court released a further 25 people on condition that they report to police regularly.
The releases follow a campaign by parents to have their children set free, with many holding daily vigils outside a prison in Silivri, west of Istanbul.
Among those released was prominent demonstrator Berkay Gezgin, a 22-year-old student who met Mr Imamoglu on the campaign trail in 2019 and coined the slogan “everything will be fine”, which the Istanbul mayor later used in his campaign.
The defendants’ cases are to be heard in June and September at Istanbul’s Caglayan courthouse. − AP
