Swedish journalist Joakim Medin, who was arrested in Istanbul on March 27th, has had the additional accusation of spreading terrorist propaganda added to the allegations against him. The new charge, which can carry a prison sentence of 7 ½ years, will be decided by a court in Ankara, while the two previous charges—membership of a terrorist group and insulting the president— will be decided in Istanbul.
If convicted on all charges, Medin could face 27 years in prison.
Medin had traveled to the country for leftist publication Dagens ETC to cover ongoing protests against the government after the jailing of the Turkish opposition’s main presidential candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu.
Turkey accuses him of being involved in a 2023 protest in which a doll resembling President Erdoğan was hung upside down outside Stockholm City Hall, as well as of being a member of the Kurdish PKK, which is designated as a terrorist group not only by Turkey but also by the European Union, the U.S., the UK, and several other countries.
