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The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Turkey violated the rights of German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yucel, who was imprisoned for a year and then convicted of participating in propaganda for Kurdish rebels, AP reported.

The court in Strasbourg ruled that the pre-trial detention of Deniz, a correspondent for the German newspaper Die Welt, amounted to a violation of his right to liberty and security of person as well as his right to freedom of expression. It also ruled that the journalist did not receive adequate compensation for his illegal detention.

“The Court ruled that Mr. Yucel had been placed and retained in pre-trial detention in the absence of plausible reasons to suspect him of committing a criminal offense,” a court statement said.

Yucel was arrested in Istanbul as part of a widespread government crackdown after a July 2016 coup attempt and charged with propaganda for terrorist groups. He was held in pre-trial detention for a year and returned to Germany after his release.

In 2020, a court in Istanbul found Yucel guilty on terrorist propaganda charges and sentenced him in absentia to more than two years and nine months in prison. A year earlier, Turkey's Constitutional Court said Yucel's one-year detention violated his rights.

His case led to a diplomatic crisis with Germany, which accused Turkey of carrying out "arbitrary arrests" of German citizens.

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