Swedish journalist Kaj Joakim Medin has been arrested in Turkey on terrorism-related charges, awaiting trial, Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office reported on Friday. Medin had traveled to Turkey to cover anti-protests regarding the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu and was arrested in Istanbul this week.
Turkish officials accuse Medin of participating in a contentious protest in Stockholm in January 2023, in which a mannequin representing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was hung outside city hall. Authorities say he was one of 15 people named as organizers or sympathizers of the rally. Medin now stands accused of “insulting the president” and “membership in a terrorist organization.”
His company, Swedish publication Dagens ETC, sounded the alarm when Medin could not be reached for two days. Editor-in-Chief Andreas Gustavsson called the arrest shameful, saying Medin was being punished for doing his job as a journalist.
Turkish prosecutors further referred to Medin’s history of reporting in war zones of Syria, Iraq, and the southeastern Turkish provinces between 2014 and 2017 while presenting their case against him. He was formally arrested over a video conference by an Ankara court after he had been questioned in Istanbul.
The Swedish government has intervened in the meantime, with Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard calling on the Turkish authorities to explain the allegations and guarantee that Medin receives consular assistance. The case has seen the Turkish ambassador to Stockholm summoned to Sweden.
The arrest of Medin further increases diplomatic tensions between Sweden and Turkey, especially amid Sweden’s membership process into the NATO and reports of Ankara suppressing press freedom.
