Imprisoned Duke student free

By Ray Gronberg : The Herald-Sun
gronberg@heraldsun.com
Aug 17, 2005 : 8:57 pm ET

[...]
"I am happy to be free," Turkyilmaz was quoted as saying in a report by Armenialiberty.org, a branch of Radio Free Europe. "I now want to concentrate on my doctoral dissertation. I was, I am and I will remain a friend of the Armenians."
[...]
Turkyilmaz -- a Kurd considered sympathetic to the Armenian point of view -- was pulled off a plane by authorities on June 17 as he prepared to leave the country. He was later charged with two counts of smuggling under a law that bars the export without permission of books that are more than 50 years old.

Tuesday's court hearing upheld the seizure of 88 books published more 50 years ago that Turkyilmaz had purchased from second-hand book dealers. A judge, however, ordered authorities to return to the scholar compact discs that contained his research notes.

According to Armenialiberty.org, a prosecutor said the smuggling charge was "absolutely substantiated," but agreed that there were mitigating circumstances. Turkyilmaz received a two-year suspended sentence.

The law in question would have supported a prison sentence of between four and eight years.
[...]
Turkyilmaz' dissertation adviser, Duke professor Orin Starn, traveled to Armenia to attend the trial and told Armenialiberty.org's reporters that Duke officials were "very pleased" by Tuesday's court decision.
[...]

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.