Swedish journalist handed suspended prison term in Turkey for insulting Erdogan

A Turkish court on Wednesday convicted a Swedish journalist of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Joakim Medin was given an 11-month suspended prison term, a media rights group said, but he remains in custody awaiting the outcome of a separate trial on terrorism-related charges.

Medin, a journalist with the daily newspaper Dagens ETC, was detained on March 27 as he arrived at Istanbul airport.

He arrived in the city to cover last month’s nationwide protests that erupted following the arrest of Istanbul’s popular mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu.

The journalist was jailed days later on charges of insulting Erdogan and membership of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.

No trial date has been set for his second trial, where he could face a maximum sentence of nine years in prison.

Medin, who is being held in Istanbul’s high-security Marmara Prison, joined Wednesday’s hearing in the capital Ankara via a video conference system.

The charges against him were based on an investigation launched by the Ankara Public Prosecutors’ Office into a rally in Stockholm on January 11 2023, which was attended by supporters of the PKK and included an effigy of Erdogan hanging by his feet.

According to the Turkish Presidency’s communications department, the prosecutors’ office identified 15 suspects, including Medin, who had organised, participated or covered the event.

It said Medin also allegedly facilitated communication between the PKK and media outlets.

During the opening hearing, Medin reported multiple violations of his basic rights during the initial stages of his detention, including the right to access to a translator, to a lawyer and consular services, according to the Media and Law Studies Association, or MLSA, which observed the proceeding.

He denied that he was present at the rally.

“The indictment begins with a protest I did not attend and includes (social media) posts I did not share,” the MLSA cited Medin as telling the court.

“On January 11 2023, a small group of activists held a protest in front of the city hall, hanging an effigy of Erdogan upside down,” the journalist continued. “I wasn’t there — I was working in Germany at the time. I had no knowledge of this protest and made no social media posts about it.”

The PKK has waged a 40-year insurgency in Turkey, which has cost tens of thousands of lives and is designated a terrorist organisation by Ankara and its Western allies.

A peace initiative between the Turkish state and the PKK was initiated in October, and the organisation declared a ceasefire at the beginning of March upon a call to do so by its imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan.