Zehra Doğan, Freethinker Award 2017 recipient, out of prison
The Turkish journalist and painter, who was awarded the Freethinker Prize in 2017 together with Masih Alinejad, has been released. She had spent more than two years as behind bars a political prisoner.
The painting of a picture and the writing of an article, these were the "crimes" that the Turkish regime Zehra had accused Doğan of in 2016. She had addressed the battle between the Turkish army and PKK units around the city of Nusaybin.
On the one hand, she used a victory photo of the army taking the city, which had been shared on social media by pro-army accounts, and painted her own version of the motif. This was interpreted as terrorist propaganda.
Additionally, she published a story about a ten-year-old boy who had experienced the war at the end of 2015. Here, too, the Turkish judiciary decided that this was terrorist propaganda.
From July to December 2016, Zehra was imprisoned for the first time at Doğan . In June 2017 she was put behind bars again. Since today she is free again.
Tweet on the release of Zehra Doğan by Jin News
Article from 6 November 2017: Freethinker prize 2017 awarded to Masih Alinejad and Zehra Doğan