A Swedish journalist arrested in Turkey on terrorism charges as well as insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been released, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson announced Friday, Agence France-Presse reported.
Joakim Medin, a reporter for the Swedish newspaper Dagens ETC, was detained upon arrival in İstanbul on March 27. He had traveled to cover protests sparked by the March 19 detention of İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, Erdoğan’s main political opponent.
Kristersson said on X that Medin was “en route to Sweden from Turkey” and would arrive “in a few hours.” He thanked the Swedish foreign ministry and Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard for working “intensively” on the case, along with unnamed European partners.
At the end of April, a court in Ankara handed down an 11-month suspended sentence to Medin for “insulting the president.” He appeared at the hearing by videolink from a prison in İstanbul.
Despite the suspended sentence, Medin remained in detention due to a case accusing him of “membership in a terrorist organization.”
Turkish authorities allege he took part in a protest linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Stockholm in January 2023. Medin denies the accusation.
He is 40 years old.
