A Turkish court has placed a publishing house representative under house arrest as part of an investigation into royalty payments made to an imprisoned editor and translator, on accusations of “financing terrorism,” Turkish media reported.
The case stems from royalty payments made by Kor Kitap Publishing to editor and translator Tonguç Ok and writer Necip Baysal, who are serving prison sentences on terrorism-related charges. The publishing house’s representative was detained for four days over the payments before a court ordered house arrest pending trial.
Ok and Baysal were sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment in 2008 on charges of “attempting to overthrow the constitutional order.”
In a statement Kor Kitap condemned the ruling as an attempt to criminalize thought and culture, calling for the decision to be overturned and urging readers to show solidarity.
The Turkish Publishers Association also criticized the ruling, saying it has no legal basis and describing it as “extremely alarming for the publishing sector and freedom of expression.”
International and human rights organizations have repeatedly criticized Turkey’s counterterrorism framework as a tool to silence political dissent and imprison journalists, lawyers and activists. They continue to call for clearer definitions of terrorism in the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) and the Counterterrorism Law (TMK) to reduce arbitrariness. Since a coup attempt in 2016, Turkey has arrested thousands on terrorism-related charges, often based on tenuous evidence such as social media posts or association with banned groups.
