Journalist Ahmet Erkan Yiğitsözlü was arbitrarily detained last Thursday, prompting criticism from human rights advocates, the Bold Medya news website reported.
Yiğitsözlü is currently standing trial for alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement. In a recent social media post, he said he was being prosecuted without concrete evidence.
He received a phone call and was asked to see the prosecutor for questioning about the social media post, but when he arrived at the office he was told the prosecutor had left and that he would “need to wait in detention.” Instead of being sent home, Yiğitsözlü was put in jail and was only released today.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement, inspired by Turkish Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, since the corruption investigations in 2013, which implicated then-prime minister Erdoğan, his family members and his inner circle.
Yiğitsözlü is an editor for KHK TV, a media outlet that covers the stories of individuals who were dismissed from their jobs by government decrees in the aftermath of a coup attempt in 2016. While in detention, Yiğitsözlü’s lawyer was informed that he was accused of “insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.” However, the lawyer criticized Yiğitsözlü’s abrupt detention, saying it was an abuse of authority. He argued that detaining the journalist without immediate questioning was a form of pre-emptive punishment.
Human rights advocate and lawmaker from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party DEM Party Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu condemned the detention, calling it part of a broader crackdown on press freedom in Turkey. “The injustice in this country never ends,” he said.
Furthermore, Yiğitsözlü’s case is being closely followed by human rights organizations such as the Human Rights Association (IHD) and the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TIHV) and political opposition such as the Liberal Party and the Green Party.
