Turkey seeks 16-year sentence for German journalist accused of propaganda

The Turkish public prosecutor is seeking a 16-year jail sentence for German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yücel.
Yücel’s lawyer said he is accused of provoking hatred and hostility and of spreading propaganda for the Kurdistan People’s Party (PKK), a group which is outlawed in Turkey. Critics described the charges as “absurd”.
Yücel was the Turkey correspondent for a German newspaper, when he was imprisoned in Turkey without being charged from February 2017 to February 2018. The move triggered a diplomatic crisis between both countries. He was later released and returned to Germany.
The Turkish organization Media and Law Studies Association said the prosecutor is also seeking a separate lawsuit over claims Yücel insulted the president in an article he wrote in 2016. Yücel, however, says the prosecutor made up content he did not write.
The Turkish government also accused him of having contact with Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara blames for organizing the 2016 coup attempt. Since the coup, some 80,000 people have been arrested and around 150,000 others have been fired from state jobs in the crackdown.
The government has been constantly criticised by rights groups for attempting to silence the opposition.
The trial in absentia against Yucel will continue in Istanbul on 2 April.