Turkish prosecutors are seeking up to three years in prison for journalist Ali Tarakcı, who was jailed pending trial over a social media post predicting that a government minister would resign, the T24 news website reported on Friday.
The indictment, filed by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, charges Tarakcı with publicly disseminating misleading information under Article 217/A of the Turkish Penal Code in a September 23 post on X.
In the post Tarakcı wrote that a “very important” government minister would resign on September 25. He was detained the following day and subsequently jailed pending trial. His X account was also blocked in Turkey by court order.
The post circulated amid speculation that Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek might resign over an investment fund crisis. No government minister resigned that day, and Tarakcı later told prosecutors that he had not been referring to any particular minister.
Prosecutors alleged that Tarakcı published the post without verifying the information, causing public concern and negatively affecting foreign exchange markets. The post was viewed approximately 5.2 million times, according to the indictment.
The indictment cited data from Turkey’s central bank showing approximately $6.24 billion in net foreign exchange sales between 18:08 on September 23, three minutes after Tarakcı published his post, and the end of the day (23:59). Net sales on September 24 also exceeded the daily average for September, according to the bank.
Tarakcı’s wife shared a copy of the two-page indictment on his X account and thanked those who had shown solidarity with her husband.
Introduced in 2022, Article 217/A of the Turkish Penal Code, commonly known as the disinformation law, provides for prison sentences of one to three years for those found guilty of publicly spreading misleading information in a way that causes concern, fear or panic among the public.
The law has prompted widespread criticism from press freedom and rights groups, which say its vague wording gives authorities broad powers to investigate and prosecute journalists and social media users over reporting and online commentary.
According to Expression Interrupted, a press freedom monitoring group, 25 journalists are currently behind bars in Turkey. The country’s deteriorating media landscape was further pointed out in the 2026 World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), where it was ranked 163rd out of 180 nations.
