Turkey frees journalist

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ISTANBUL, Turkey, Dec. 28 (UPI) -- A Turkish journalist freed after two years in prison for alleged ties to an ultra-nationalist group was praised Friday by an opposition political leader.

Republican People's Party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said journalist Soner Yalcin, who was released Thursday but still faces trial in the OdaTV case, "dared to pay the price for properly performing his profession."

"He has paid the price and is still standing tall," Kilicdaroglu said after speaking with Yalcin by phone. "He judged those who tried him. While paying the price at the Silivri Concentration Camp he didn't bow.

"He was standing tall when he entered prison and he is standing tall now, too."

Yalcin, who had been incarcerated at the Silivri prison in Istanbul, is accused along with OdaTV and other journalists of working on behalf of Ergenekon, an alleged ultra-nationalist gang accused of plotting to overthrow the government by fomenting chaos among the public. Sixty-seven of 275 suspects have been arrested.