Turkey Convicts Wall Street Journal Reporter in Absentia<br />“We have stood by Ms. Albayrak’s side for nearly two years as we have robustly pursued all available options to defend this baseless prosecution,<br />and we will continue to stand with her as we seek to overturn this conviction.”<br />The ruling was handed down during the state of emergency put into effect by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after a coup attempt in July 2016.<br />“This was an unfounded criminal charge and wildly inappropriate conviction<br />that wrongly singled out a balanced Wall Street Journal report,” Mr. Baker said in a statement.<br />“The notion that our reporter’s commendable and insightful work led to a criminal prosecution<br />that has resulted in this wrongful conviction is intolerable,” Mr. Lewis said.<br />A Turkish court convicted a longtime Wall Street Journal reporter in absentia on terrorism charges<br />and sentenced her to two years and one month in prison.
