Senior economy editor and author of several books, Zafer Özcan(45) was arrested in western Akhisar province on Thursday as part of crackdown targeting press freedom in Turkey.
According to witnesses, Özcan’s car was stopped by the police after he got his kids to school in the morning in Akhisar and he was told they would search his house before he was detained.
Shortly after his detention, Özcan appeared before the presiding judge who ruled to arrest him on charges of membership in a terrorist organization.
Two detention warrants had been issued earlier for Özcan after controversial coup attempt on July 15, 2016. He was reportedly hiding in his hometown in order to escape from imprisonment and persecution by the Turkish government.
Özcan was Özgür Düşünce daily’s economy editor until the newspaper was shut down by a government decree along with some 200 media outlets during the state of emergency declared a few days after July 15, 2016.
Özcan started his journalism career at now-closed Turkey’s best selling Zaman daily in 1997. After serving 7 years in newsroom in Istanbul, he started to work at Aksiyon magazine in 2004.
He joined Bugün daily as an economy editor in 2004. After İpek Media Group that owned Bugün and several prominent media outlets was illegally seized by the government in 2015, he continued journalism at Özgür Düşünce Daily established by journalists mostly fired by government-appointed trustees at İpek.
Özcan, married with 3 children, is the author of 6 books including biographic interviews with Turkish intellectuals.
Turkey is the biggest jailer of journalists in the world. The most recent figures documented by SCF show that 213 journalists and media workers were in jail as of March 8, 2019, most in pretrial detention. Of those in prison 136 were under arrest pending trial, while only 77 journalists have been convicted and are serving their time. Detention warrants are outstanding for 167 journalists who are living in exile or remain at large in Turkey.
The post Senior economy editor arrested on terror charges appeared first on Stockholm Center for Freedom.
from SCF
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