An Istanbul court issued a warrant for journalist Deniz Yücel’s arrest
In the May 18th hearing of the trial of Die Welt columnist Deniz Yücel on charges of “insulting the president” and “openly degrading the Turkish state”, the Istanbul 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance ruled that a warrant for Yücel’s arrest should be issued.
The court issued an arrest warrant for the journalist following the Ministry of Justice's refusal to process the request to obtain Yücel's statement, who resides in Germany.
Yücel, who is also the spokesperson for PEN Berlin, faced accusations of “openly degrading the state and judicial organs” based on his article titled “The Death of a Kurd's Mother Without Seeing Her” published in Die Welt on different dates. Additionally, he was charged with “insulting the President” for using the term “coup plotter” in another article about Erdogan which was published in Die Welt.
The two separate cases were merged in 2021.
During the sixth hearing in which the arrest warrant was issued, Yücel's lawyers requested the court to re- issue a writ for rogatory letters, which means obtaining the defendant's statement from his location.
However, the judge rejected the lawyers' request and decided to issue a warrant for Yücel’s arrest.
The trial will continue on October 17th.
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