The court decided on detention because his posts were considered an attack.
An Istanbul court remanded a Turkish journalist in custody on Saturday night over his social media posts where he published the names of prosecutors overseeing the criminal case against a politician from Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP). His lawyer informed about it. TASR writes according to the Reuters agency.
Furkan Karabay, a reporter for the 10Haber web portal, was detained on Friday morning after he published the names of the prosecutors in the Ahmet Özer case on the X social network. In the past, he was the mayor of Istanbul’s Esenyurt district. The police detained him at the end of October on suspicion of being connected to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Ankara considers a terrorist organization.
According to Reuters, the court decided to detain Karabayo on the grounds that his posts were “directed against public officials involved in the fight against terrorism.”
The detained journalist denied the accusation
In his statement before the court, Karabay rejected the accusation, saying that the names of the prosecutors were published by several media, as well as CHP leader Özgür Özel. He condemned the mayor’s investigation and declared that it was ordered by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Karabaya’s lawyer Enes Ermaner considers the detention of his client illegal. “The journalist was arrested for reporting on persons whose names are publicly known. It’s a shame,” he said.
Press freedom organizations and the main opposition party condemned the arrest. “Arresting a journalist just for reporting and informing the public is a serious attack on press freedom and democratic values,” the Association of Progressive Journalists said in a statement.
