ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey's state run news agency says a court in Istanbul has released singer Atilla Tas and 20 others from jail pending an outcome of their trial on terrorism charges.

Tas, who wrote a newspaper column and posted satirical tweets about President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is among a group of 28 people, mostly journalists, who went on trial this week for alleged links to U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen. Turkey blames Gulen for last July's failed coup attempt.

Anadolu Agency said the court released 21 of the defendants on Friday. Five of them will remain in prison while two of the defendants are at large and being tried in absentia.

Tas and the other defendants face up to 10 years in prison if convicted of membership in "an armed terrorist organization."