An Adana court on Thursday handed down a suspended sentence to visually impaired journalist Cüneyt Arat for praising Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen and the Gülen movement he inspired.
Announcing the news from his Twitter account, Arat wrote: “Judge Ender Genç gave me a prison sentence of 11 months. If I don’t praise them [Gülen and the Gülen movement] for one year, he said my sentence will be canceled. I am not going to jail, I am free.”
Arat was arrested on July 21 for social media posts that allegedly praise the Gülen movement, which the government accuses of masterminding a failed coup attempt on July 15.
The disabled journalist was placed under house arrest wearing an electronic ankle bracelet until February.