MEDIA MONITORING DATABASE
Detention of journalist and documentary filmmaker Sibel Tekin
RELATED PERSON OR INSTITUTION
Sibel Tekin
CITY
Ankara
YEAR OF INTERFERENCE
2022
LAST UPDATED
03/10/2023
TYPE OF STATEMENT
Political
MEDIUM
Other
THE TITLE OF WHOSE RIGHT IS INTERFERED
Journalist
RIGHTS GUARANTEED UNDER THE RIGHT OF FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
Right to Impart Information and Ideas
TYPE OF INTERFERENCE
Judicial Interference
Public Prosecution Offices
Arrest request

Documentary director Sibel Tekin was taken into custody in a raid on her house by the anti-terror police teams in Ankara at around 2 in the morning. 

Detained as part of an investigation launched by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, Tekin’s reason for being detained remained unclear. During the raid on her house, several digital equipment and materials including her PC, hard disks with her documentary works and cameras were seized (December 16).

Her period of detention was extended on the stated ground of examining the seized digital materials. Tekin was later referred to the prosecutor’s office with a request for her arrest. Tekin was arrested on charge of “being a member of an organization” (December 18).

Sibel Tekin’s lawyer Mehtap Sakinci Coşgun appealed against her pre-trial detention by applying to the Ankara 4th Criminal Court of First Instance. The court rejected the appeal (December 19).

Tekin was indicted for “membership of an organization”.

It was argued in the indictment that Tekin, who was making a documentary on permanent daylight saving time, was “reconnoitering upon the instruction of the organization” without the name of the organization being cited.

The Ankara 26th High Criminal Court accepted the indictment against Tekin. The first hearing will be held on February 23, 2023 (January 9).

With her hearing scheduled for February 23, 2023, Tekin’s lawyer Mehtap Sakıncı announced on Twitter that Sibel Tekin was released on January 30. The ruling of release was given by the Ankara 26th High Criminal Court following the review of her detention. At the interim trial, the prosecutor’s office presented its opinion as to her detention as per the Article 108 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CMK).

After Sakıncı’s petition of release dated January 26 was read aout, the court handed down its ruling by indicating that “…the defendant should be released on probation as the judicial control measures would suffice at the current stage of the investigation, considering that the requested documents had been received between the hearings, evidence had been mostly collected, theer was no evidence in the file that could be spoiled, she had a permanent place of residence and was no flight risk and given the time that she had already served behind bars…” (January 30).

The third hearing of the case was held on October 3, 2023 at Ankara 26th High Criminal Court. At the hearing, the additional expert report requested by the court about Tekin showed that there was no evidence that Tekin specifically pulled over police and prison vehicles. The court decided to wait for the computer examination from the Cyber Crimes Department and postponed the hearing to December 5, 2023 (October 3).