Turkish court keeps former NASA scientist in prison
NASA scientist Serkan Golge, in jail on coup-plot charges, lost an initial appeal to a Turkish court. His wife believes he is a captive in Ankara’s feud with Washington, which has flexed diplomatic and economic muscle to free another jailed American.
A Turkish court on Wednesday reduced the prison sentence of an American physicist convicted on terrorism charges but refused to free him in a case that has drawn far less attention than that of the jailed American pastor in Turkey.
Serkan Golge, a 38-year-old former NASA scientist, was sentenced in February to 7 1/2 years in prison on charges he belonged to an outlawed group accused of staging a bungled military coup in Turkey in 2016. He appealed the verdict to a provincial court in the southern city of Adana.
The Adana court trimmed his sentence to five years and overturned the conviction for membership in a terrorist organization, ruling instead that Golge had aided the group, his lawyer, Ali Bilgin, told Al-Monitor. Golge rejects both charges and will now appeal to a higher court in a process that could take years.
There was no immediate US response to Wednesday’s ruling against Golge. In February, the State Department said his conviction was “without credible evidence” and it would follow the case closely.
