Three months. That’s how long our comrade, socialist activist and Jacobin contributor Max Zirngast, has been imprisoned in Turkey. He was taken into custody on September 11 by Turkish anti-terror police, who seized many of his books.

There is still no official indictment. A state prosecutor apparently submitted one to the court on November 29, but yesterday the latter deemed it insufficient. Lawyers have been barred from seeing the details. Two days ago, the authorities also denied a visitation application from Max’s friends without any explanation.

What does all this mean? Is the court indicating that the prosecutor has to be more creative in inventing charges? Did the prosecutor not have sufficient time over ninety days to come up with an indictment that would pass muster? Or are they merely playing a game to extend Max’s pre-trial detention, trying to fool us and wear him down? Is Max such a “terrorist” that his friends don’t even have a right to visit him in prison?