The German Foreign Ministry announced on Friday that another German citizen jailed in Turkey has been freed, a week after the release of German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yücel.
“I am pleased that there has been another release. A person about whom we are not providing details has been set free, though with a ban on leaving the country,” a foreign ministry spokesman told a government news conference in Berlin.
The spokesman declined to give any details about where the person had been imprisoned, how long they had been in jail, or their gender. Four Germans remain in prison in Turkey on political grounds, he said.
Journalist Yücel was detained a year ago on suspicion of spreading propaganda in support of a terrorist organization and inciting violence. He denies the accusations. Last Friday he was freed pending trial and allowed to return to Germany.
Yücel was working as a Die Welt correspondent in Turkey when he was taken into custody by police in İstanbul, on Feb. 14, 2017. A warrant for his arrest was issued a short time later. By March, the 43-year-old journalist was transferred to İstanbul’s maximum-security Silivri Prison and courts complex. Many press and rights advocates considered him a hostage of Turkey’s government.