Lawyers for Joakim Medin, a Swedish journalist jailed in Turkey, have filed an individual application with the country’s Constitutional Court claiming multiple violations of his fundamental rights stemming from his arrest and ongoing pretrial detention, according to the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA).
The MLSA, which represents Medin, 40, said the petition claims that Turkish authorities violated the journalist’s rights to liberty and security, a fair trial, freedom of expression and the press and respect for private and family life.
Medin has been jailed since March 28 on charges that include “membership in a terrorist organization,” “disseminating terrorist propaganda” and “insulting the president.”
He is set to stand trial on Wednesday before an Ankara court via video link for the charge of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan since two separate indictments have been filed against him. A court date for the terrorism charge has not yet been scheduled.
Detention at airport and due process concerns
Medin was detained on March 27 upon arrival at İstanbul Airport, where he planned to report on nationwide protests that erupted after the detention and imprisonment of İstanbul’s opposition mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, a key political rival to Erdoğan.
His detention took place as part of an investigation launched by Turkish prosecutors into him in 2023. He was subsequently put in pretrial detention in İstanbul’s notorious Silivri Prison, where most political prisoners are jailed.
He faces up to three years for the insult charge and nine years for the terrorism charge.
The journalists’ lawyers claim that the arrest and interrogation processes were riddled with due process violations, including the lack of a competent translator and the use of Google Translate during questioning.
The lawyers said key evidence, including social media posts and photos, was never clearly presented to Medin or properly recorded in the case file.
Journalism as evidence
According to the petition, the case against Medin is based entirely on his journalistic activities. Prosecutors cited articles, interviews and social media posts as evidence, including reports about a 2023 protest in Stockholm where an effigy of Erdoğan was hung upside down. Medin’s lawyers say he was not in Sweden at the time of the protest and had no involvement in the reporting of the event, a fact supported by flight records.
The charges also cite his work covering the Syrian civil war, the refugee crisis and political developments in Turkey. Medin is a foreign correspondent for Sweden’s Dagens ETC newspaper and a member of both the Swedish Union of Journalists and the International Federation of Journalists.
Medin’s legal team also claims that his pretrial detention serves to intimidate international journalists working in or reporting on Turkey. “He is being punished for performing legitimate journalistic work in conflict zones and reporting on politically sensitive topics,” the petition reads.
The lawyers asked the Constitutional Court to rule on violations of Medin’s constitutional rights rights granted by the European Convention on Human Rights and demanded his immediate release and 5 million Turkish lira (approximately $150,000) in damages. The application also calls for urgent interim measures to free Medin before the court completes its review.
Family impact
Medin’s wife, who is eight months’ pregnant and resides in Sweden, is unable to be with her husband during the final stages of her pregnancy, a situation his lawyers describe as an “irreparable violation” of his right to private and family life.
The arrest of Medin has attracted attention from international press freedom groups and follows a pattern of targeting foreign and local journalists under Turkey’s broad counterterrorism and insult laws. Turkish authorities frequently prosecute journalists on terrorism-related charges for reporting on Kurdish groups or criticizing President Erdoğan.