Journalist İsmail Saymaz, who was detained on Wednesday as part of an investigation into the 2013 Gezi Park protests, has been released from custody but put under house arrest, the TR724 news website reported.
Saymaz, a columnist for Halk TV, is accused of “aiding an attempt to overthrow the Turkish government,” with prosecutors alleging he played an active role in the protests, spread misleading information on social media and attempted to incite the public against law enforcement.
The Gezi Park protests began in the summer of 2013 as opposition to an urban development plan in central İstanbul and quickly spread to other cities, posing the biggest challenge to then-prime minister and current president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s rule. The protests were violently suppressed by Erdoğan’s government, which later labeled them a “coup attempt” against him.
A decade later, Turkish prosecutors have launched new investigations into individuals and media organizations allegedly involved in the protests. Critics say the move is aimed at silencing government opponents.
An İstanbul court on Friday ordered Saymaz’s release from police custody and put him under house arrest in line with a request from a prosecutor.
According to a statement from the prosecutor’s office, Saymaz had phone conversations with jailed businessman Osman Kavala regarding the preparation of a website for him and his plans to establish a TV station.
Kavala, who has been imprisoned since November 2017 on charges related to the Gezi Park protests, was sentenced to life in prison in 2022 for allegedly attempting to overthrow Erdoğan’s government. His conviction, widely seen as politically motivated, was upheld by the Supreme Court of Appeals in September 2023.
Prosecutors also cite Saymaz’s “intense communications” with other Gezi Park defendants, including Can Atalay and Çiğdem Mater — both currently serving sentences — as well as Mücella Yapıcı, as evidence of criminal activity.
Saymaz, who responded to the accusations through his lawyer, said he had no conversations with Kavala other than for journalistic purposes.
He said he knew Atalay as a lawyer involved in social cases before and after the Gezi Park protests, was acquainted with Mater through social circles and had contact with Yapıcı as a news source.
“I have never been accused or held responsible for the Gezi Park protests in the past 12 years,” Saymaz said. “Since no other charges can be brought against me, I am being dragged into the Gezi Park case. My journalism is being obstructed, and I am clearly being silenced,” he said.
Saymaz’s detention came on the same day that İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), and more than 80 others, including two district mayors in İstanbul, city officials, businesspeople and journalists, were detained as part of two investigations led by the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office. They face accusations of corruption and terrorism, which the opposition says are politically motivated.
Turkey, which has been suffering from a poor record of freedom of the press for years, ranks 158th among 180 countries in the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) World Press Freedom Index published in May 2024.