Journalist for German newspaper arrested in Turkey for 'terrorist propaganda'

Turkish authorities have arrested a reporter for a prominent German newspaper on charges of propaganda in support of a terrorist organisation and inciting the public to violence, according to a court witness.

Authorities initially detained Deniz Yücel, a correspondent for Die Welt newspaper, on 14 February after he reported on emails that a leftist hacker collective had purportedly obtained from the private account of Berat Albayrak, Turkey’s energy minister and the son-in-law of Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. He has since been held in police custody.

On Monday, an Istanbul court ordered Yücel, a dual citizen of Turkey and Germany, to be jailed pending trial, a witness at the court told Reuters news agency.

Several other journalists have also been detained in connection with the emails.

However, Yücel is the first German reporter to be held in a widespread crackdown that has followed last year’s failed 15 July coup in Turkey and has frequently targeted the media.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel criticised the move as “bitter and disappointing” and called it “disproportionate”.

“The German government expects that the Turkish judiciary, in its treatment of the Yücel case, takes account of the high value of freedom of the press for every democratic society. We will continue to insist on a fair and legal treatment of Deniz Yücel and hope that he will soon regain his freedom,” she said.

More than 100,000 people have been sacked or suspended from Turkey’s police, military, civil service and private sector since the failed coup and tens of thousands arrested. Ankara says the measures are necessary given the security threats it faces.

Turkey’s allies, including Germany, fear Erdoğan is using the purges as a pretext to curtail dissent. Relations between the Nato allies have been strained by the coup but Germany relies on Turkey for its part in a deal to control the flow of migrants into Europe.