A prosecutor has issued a decision of non-prosecution for journalist Sultan Mercan, who had been detained in a home raid on the grounds of her journalistic activities and had been under investigation for about 16 months.
Medine Mamedoğlu
Diyarbakır - As part of an investigation centered in the western Turkish province of Eskişehir, 16 people — including journalists, writers and cartoonists — were detained on Nov. 26, 2024. The detentions took place during house raids carried out in the southeastern city of Diyarbakır as well as in Istanbul, Eskişehir, Batman and Antalya. Authorities cited work linked to the publications Özgür Politika and PolitikArt as grounds for the operation. Those detained were held in custody for three days.
One of the people detained in the investigation, Roza Metina (Sultan Mercan) — the co-chair of the Mesopotamia Women Journalists Association — has now received a non-prosecution decision from the Terror Crimes Bureau of the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office. The prosecutor ruled that the existing evidence in the file, which had remained at the investigation stage for about 16 months, was insufficient to open a public criminal case.
As part of the same operation, people detained in Istanbul and Antalya were taken to Eskişehir, while the journalists whose statements were taken in Diyarbakır were released under judicial control measures. Mehmet Üçar and Bilge Aksu, whose statements were taken in Eskişehir, were later released after a short period in pre-trial detention.
After the detention processes, the Eskişehir Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office ruled that it lacked jurisdiction over the individuals detained in Diyarbakır and sent the file to Diyarbakır. The files had remained at the investigation stage in Diyarbakır for about 16 months, and this is the first decision issued within that scope.
Within the investigation, Sultan Mercan had been investigated on the allegation of “membership in an organization,” based on reports from MASAK, Turkey’s Financial Crimes Investigation Board. The prosecutor decided on non-prosecution, stating that the existing evidence did not reach a level that would require filing a public criminal case. It was also ruled that electronic devices seized during the house raid be returned.
According to information obtained from lawyers involved in the case, the evaluation process for other people included in the investigation is still ongoing.
Those detained within the scope of the investigation included journalists Erdoğan Alayumat, Tuğçe Yılmaz, Bilge Aksu, Ahmet Sünbül, Bilal Seçkin, Mehmet Üçar, Suzan Demir and Havin Derya; translator and Gazete Duvar columnist Abdurrahman Aydın; director Ardın Diren; cartoonist Doğan Güzel; writer Hicri İzgören, who is a member of the Turkish Writers’ Union, the Literature Association and PEN; translator and writer Ömer Barasi; publishing house coordinator Baver Yoldaş; and photographer Emrah Kelekçier.
