ISTANBUL — A Turkish court convicted 13 employees of Cumhuriyet, Turkey’s oldest independent newspaper, of terrorism-related crimes on Wednesday, and handed down stiff sentences for several of them even while ordering the release of the newspaper’s chief executive.

The defendants — journalists, managers and two lawyers, most of whom had been released from jail during the monthslong trial — received sentences of two to seven years in prison, but they will remain free while their cases are appealed.

The chief executive, Akin Atalay, the executive chairman of the Cumhuriyet Foundation, which manages the newspaper, was the last of the group still in jail. The court ordered his release on Wednesday evening, but he was barred from traveling abroad.

Mr. Atalay, along with several other defendants, was acquitted of a charge of misuse of authority but convicted of helping terrorist organizations. Supporters and press freedom groups denounced the verdicts as travesty of justice.