ISTANBUL (Reuters) – A Turkish court ruled to release pop star Gulsen from house arrest, her lawyer said on Monday, after she was briefly jailed pending trial last month over a quip about religious schools.
Gulsen was briefly jailed last month on a charge of incitement to hatred before being moved to house arrest several days later.
Her arrest had sparked outrage, with critics saying that she was targeted for her support for LGBT+ rights and liberal views that go against President Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted AK Party.
Gulsen’s lawyer, Emek Emre, said the court had accepted a challenge against the house arrest on Monday, adding that she was still banned from traveling abroad.
Erdogan, whose AK Party first came to power nearly two decades ago, himself studied at one of the country’s first Imam Hatip schools, religious institutions which were founded by the state to educate young men to be imams and preachers.
Critics say Turkey’s courts receive instructions from Erdogan’s AK Party and their allies. The government says courts are independent.
(Reporting by Yesim Dikmen; Writing by Ali Kucukgocmen; Editing by Ece Toksabay)
