Taken into custody on June 8, 2022 as part of an investigation launched by the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, 16 of the 22 people, 20 of whom were journalists, were arrested by the court on June 16. Of the journalists sent to the Diyarbakır Type D Closed Prison, journalist Ömer Çelik’s letter to a colleague and a colleague’s letter to him were not given as they were found “objectionable” by the prison administration.
The letter penned by journalist Çelik to his colleague Mehmet Güneş on June 28 was seized by the prison administration for being “objectionable”. As the reason for the seizure, it was said, “…he has targeted the State of the Republic of Turkey, the public institutions, judges and prosecutors by making baseless and humiliating accusations and as it may also lead to intra-organizational communication and encrypted correspondence…” (July 3).