German journalist acquitted of terror charges in Turkey

ISTANBUL (AP) — A Turkish court has acquitted German journalist Mesale Tolu after years on trial for terror-related charges. She was accused of engaging in terror propaganda and being a member of a banned left-wing group — the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party. The 38-year-old German citizen was placed in pre-trial detention for eight months in 2017. She was later released but was barred from leaving Turkey until August 2018. German-Turkish relations were tense at the time of Tolu’s arrest, when eight other German or German-Turkish citizens were imprisoned. Reporters Without Borders ranks Turkey at 153 out of 180 countries in its World Press Freedom Index of 2021.