In an interview with the German Catholic News Agency (KNA) in Rome on May 11 Turkey’s ambassador to the Vatican, Mehmet Paçacı, said that even the pope’s request that arrested German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yücel be pardoned cannot help him.
Claiming that the Turkish judiciary operates "freely and independently," Paçacı said the question of "whether someone is guilty or not is decided within the own rules of Turkish legal system and available evidence" and "no one can interfere with this'', Hurriyet reports.
Yücel, who holds both German and Turkish citizenship, was arrested on Feb. 27 on charges of propaganda in support of a terrorist organization and inciting public violence, after first being detained on Feb. 14.
Yücel, a journalist for Die Welt, faces up to 10.5 years in jail if convicted.