PodcastTurkish court arrests three journos over ‘terror organization membership’
A Turkish court on April 26 arrested journalists Erdoğan Alayumat, Mehmet Aslan, and Esra Solin Dal on “membership to a terrorist organization” charges three days after they were detained along with six other journalists, who were released with judicial control measures.
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An Istanbul court on April 26 arrested journalist Erdoğan Alayumat and pro-Kurdish Mesopotamia Agency (MA) correspondents Mehmet Aslan and Esra Solin Dal for being a member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Police on April 23 detained Alayumat, Aslan, and Dal along with six other journalists with morning raids to their residences in various provinces.
The journalists were questioned about the news articles they have written in the past, including an interview with the imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan’s lawyers, and reports on femicides.
One journalist was asked by whose orders he had written a piece about the 2022 Justice Vigil held by Emine Şenyaşar, whose sons and husband were murdered by the private security of a former deputy of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
The court released Enes Sezgin, Saliha Aras, Yeşim Alıcı, Beste Argat Balcı, Şirin Ermiş, and former MA correspondent Doğan Kaynak with judicial control measures.
Dal will be transferred to the Bakırköy Women’s Closed Prison in Istanbul, Alayumut to the Metris Prison in western Turkey’s Edirne province, and Aslan will be taken to the Sincan Prison in the capital province of Ankara.
Turkey ranks 165 out of the 180 countries on Reporters Without Borders's (RSF) World Press Freedom Index, which describes it as a country in which "all possible means are used to undermine critics."
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