Turkish police on Wednesday arrested journalist Serdar Akinan in Turkey’s Çanakkale province, the journalist announced on Twitter.
Akinan was reportedly taken to Istanbul after being arrested and a confidentiality order was applied to his file.
Akinan has recently been broadcasting on Youtube about Kurdish businessman Muhammed Yakut’s allegations regarding corruption and criminal activities of Turkey’s government and senior officials.
“Why this cruelty? When will it end?” journalist Cüneyt Özdemir asked, protesting against the detention of his colleague.
“Journalism is not a crime. One sentence,” Özdemir said. “I expect election pledges such as, ‘We will build new prisons as an election investment, we will put you all in very comfortable prisons…’ if we are going to go on with this mentality…”
Yakut, who is from Turkey’s Kurdish-majority province of Diyarbakır (Amed), started to share his allegations last week, and promised to release 13 videos on YouTube before 14 May, the date of Turkey’s critical elections. In his videos, the businessman claims that he has documentation to prove his allegations against well-known figures in Turkey.
