A Turkish court convicted a correspondent for Germany's Die Welt newspaper Thursday of engaging in propaganda in favor of the bloody-minded PKK terror group and sentenced him to two years and nine months in prison.
However, the court acquitted German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yucel of charges of sedition and of propagandizing for the Fetullah Terrorist Organization [FETO] which is behind failed July 15 coup attempt in 2016 .
Yucel was arrested in Istanbul as part of anti-terror operations in the wake of the July 2016 coup attempt and charged with propaganda on behalf terror groups, including the PKK. He was held in pretrial detention for a year and has since returned to Germany.
Yucel's arrest led to protracted row between Turkey and Germany, two NATO allies. Shortly after his arrest, Berlin banned Turkish ministers from speaking to rallies of expatriate Turks, while President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called Yucel a terrorist agent and Ankara accused Germany of supporting Gulenist coup-plotters.
