Expression Interrupted

Journalists and academics bear the brunt of the massive crackdown on freedom of expression in Turkey. Scores of them are currently subject to criminal investigations or behind bars. This website is dedicated to tracking the legal process against them.

Journalists Müyesser Yıldız and İsmail Dükel taken into custody

Journalists Müyesser Yıldız and İsmail Dükel taken into custody

Odatv Ankara News Director Yıldız and Tele 1 TV Ankara Bureau Chief Dükel detained as part of an investigation on the allegation of “political and military espionage”

 

CANSU PİŞKİN 

 

Odatv Ankara News Director Müyesser Yıldız and Tele 1 TV Ankara Bureau Chief İsmail Dükel were taken into custody on 8 June 2020 by anti-terror police in Ankara.

 

Yıldız and Dükel were both arrested on the allegation of “political and military espionage” as part of an ongoing investigation launched in 2019 by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office. A military officer based in Istanbul was also arrested as part of the same investigation, Turkish media reported on 8 June.

 

The journalists’ lawyers were not officially notified of the charges against their clients, however, the pro-government daily Sabah reported Monday that both journalists were accused of “military espionage.” 

 

“The leaking of Turkey’s military plans concerning its campaigns in Libya and in Syria’s Idlib ‘for military espionage’ purposes is among allegations in the investigation file,” Sabah reported. The newspaper also claimed that “Müyesser Yıldız had phone correspondence with military official E.B. for a long time” and that “the two were involved in 29 separate military criminal acts.”

 

Unlawful arrest 

 

Contacted by P24, Yıldız’s lawyer Erhan Tokatlı confirmed that Yıldız was arrested in connection with a “military espionage” investigation launched in 2019 by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office. Tokatlı added that a confidentiality order was in place concerning the investigation file.

 

“In any case, my client has been unlawfully arrested, without a justification. She is not someone who would flee. Had she been sent a summons, she would have gone to make her statement. These incidents remind us of the FETÖ conspiracies of the past,” Tokatlı said.

 

As of Monday afternoon, Yıldız and Dükel were detained at the anti-terror division of the Ankara Police Department.

 

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