The European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday condemned Turkey for jailing journalist and novelist Ahmet Altan after accusing him of involvement in a failed 2016 coup attempt.
Altan, 71, has worked for several Turkish newspapers and TV news programmes.
He wrote a series of articles critical of the government and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2016.
Altan was arrested shortly after the coup attempt as part of a purge of media organisations, and accused of supporting the uprising by "disseminating subliminal messages to the public".
He was sentenced to life imprisonment for trying to overthrow the government, a ruling that was later quashed by Turkey's top court.
After the case was re-examined, he was sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison for "knowingly supporting a terrorist organisation", a reference to the Gulen movement Mr Erdogan claims was behind the coup.
After Altan's complaints about his detention were rejected by a Turkish court, he turned to the European court in 2017.
He said his pre-trial detention was arbitrary, that he had not had access to his file, and that his right to free speech had been breached.
In its verdict announced Tuesday, the rights court found "that there was no evidence that the actions of the applicant had been part of a plan to overthrow the government".
Altan's arrest had no basis in any "reasonable suspicion" that he had committed the criminal offences of which he was accused, it found.
Turkish actions therefore amounted to an unjustified interference with the right to freedom of expression.
The court ordered Turkey to pay Altan €16,000 ($19,120) in damages.
The court, established in 1959, deals with breaches of the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights.
