Turkey arrests Austrian journalist in jail on terror charges

A Turkish court ordered an Austrian journalist to be kept in jail ahead of a trial on terror charges following his detention last week.

Max Zirngast, who writes for the far-left German-language magazine Re:volt, was detained in Ankara on September 11 and formally arrested by the Ankara court late Thursday, his lawyer Tamer Dogan said.

The lawyer added that Zirngast, 29, was charged with being a member of an extreme leftist terror organisation, AFP reported.

The Austrian has been in Turkey for three years and was a masters student at Middle East Technical University (ODTU) in the political sciences department.

He is accused of being a member of the Turkish Communist Party (TKP)/Kivilcim group, which is banned by Turkey as a terror organisation.

Two other suspects, Hatice Goz and Mithatcan Turetken, were also kept in jail by the court in the capital on the same charge. But the lawyer and student claimed such an organisation "doesn't exist".

"Max has no links with any illegal organisation," Dogan said, adding that the student rejected the allegations against him.

"He is a journalist working in the scope of the law," the lawyer insisted.