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Turkey Acquits ISIS Member Who Recruited Fighters in Syria, Iraq
Turkish court decided to acquit a Turkish citizen who had been arrested on charges of joining ISIS.
Turkish authorities have accused "Kushkon Demir," 27 years old, who lives in "Erzurum” in eastern Turkey, of joining ISIS and charged him of publishing ISIS propaganda.
Demir was acquitted by the Turkish courts under the term "freedom of expression" but he is still in detention by the court until a final decision is issued towards him. According to the Nordic Monitor Centre for monitoring extremism and terrorism, Demir, nicknamed "Abu Hanzalah", was part of a radical terroristic faction and helped many Turkish citizens to join ISIS and other extremist armed groups in Iraq and Syria.
The centre confirmed that, during interrogation, it was found that he was involved in contact with several terrorists in Turkey, including a person who is considered by the Turkish government as the mastermind of many attacks that happened in Turkey by ISIS.
The Turkish authorities arrested Demir in November 2017. But later he was released waiting for the trial. In May 2018 he was arrested again for different charges, and another list of accusations have been filed against him on the 13th of June 2018, Demir defended himself claiming that he was working to overthrow the secular regime in Turkey. More than 188 Turkish childs are suspected to be members of ISIS according to Ankara.
Acquitting Demir comes under the term of freedom of expression, while the Turkish authorities are imprisoning dozens of journalists and human rights activists without any trial.
