The trial in absentia of Swedish journalist Joakim Medin on terrorism-related charges in Turkey has been postponed for a fourth time after a translation error in Sweden’s response to a Turkish request to have him questioned.
The İstanbul 13th High Criminal Court on Thursday ordered that another request be sent to Swedish authorities, specifying that it sought only Medin’s defense statement and not his extradition, the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA), which represents the journalist, reported.
The court adjourned the trial until January 5, 2027.
Turkey had asked Sweden in the fall of 2025 to have a Swedish court question Medin. Sweden’s government rejected that request in January because assisting the proceedings could restrict freedom of expression and independent journalism.
Sweden then sent its decision to Turkey along with a Turkish translation prepared by an authorized translator working for a company contracted by the Swedish government.
That translation mistakenly referred to extradition instead of the taking of Medin’s statement, according to the MLSA.
Swedish Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer said Thursday that the original Swedish decision concerned Turkey’s request to question Medin and that the refusal was based on Swedish legal principles protecting freedom of expression.
Strömmer called the translation error “very regrettable” and promised that a corrected translation would immediately be prepared and sent to Turkey’s justice ministry.
During Thursday’s hearing Medin’s lawyer pointed out the discrepancy between Turkey’s request and the response received from Sweden and asked the court to revise and resend the request.
The prosecution asked the court to complete the outstanding procedural steps, and the court ordered the new request to make clear that Medin’s statement should be taken in Sweden.
Representatives of the Swedish Consulate General, the Swedish Union of Journalists and the Swedish Magazine Publishers Association attended the hearing.
Medin, a reporter for the Swedish Dagens ETC newspaper, is being tried on charges of membership in an armed terrorist organization and disseminating terrorist propaganda. His social media posts, news reports and books are among the evidence cited in the indictment.
Turkish prosecutors have accused Medin of links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and of involvement in a January 2023 protest in Stockholm during which an effigy of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was hung outside Stockholm City Hall. Medin has denied participating in the protest and has said the material cited against him was related to his journalistic work.
The PKK, which has waged a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state, is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies.
Medin was detained at İstanbul Airport on March 27, 2025, after arriving in Turkey to cover nationwide protests sparked by the detention of İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, then the main opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) presidential candidate. He was arrested the following day.
Turkish prosecutors pursued two separate cases against Medin, one for allegedly insulting Erdoğan and another over the terrorism-related accusations.
An Ankara court in April 2025 handed down an 11-month suspended sentence for insulting the president. Although the court ordered his release in that case, he remained in custody due to the separate terrorism case.
Medin was released in May after 50 days in pretrial detention and returned to Sweden, while the terrorism case continued in his absence.
The proceedings against Medin have attracted criticism from international press freedom organizations and European lawmakers. In February the European Parliament called on Turkey to suspend all legal proceedings against Medin as part of a resolution criticizing the treatment of foreign journalists in the country.
The Swedish Union of Journalists criticized the repeated delays following Thursday’s hearing. Its chair, Ulrika Hyllert, accused Turkey of deliberately prolonging the proceedings, saying that “a legal process that never ends is a way of punishing someone without a verdict.”
This article is republished from Turkish Minute.
