A burglar who broke into the house of journalist Hayri Demir in February 2017 stole two memory cards of Demir. The stolen cards were found by a citizen on the street and handed over to the police afterwards. Examining the memory cards, the police “detected” the pictures taken by Demir in the north of Syria and the announcements that he made during news reporting. The prosecutor’s office indicted Hayri Demir over these pictures and announcements on charges of “being a member of a terrorist organization” and “propagandizing for a terrorist organization via the press”.
At the 11th hearing of the case, the Ankara 15th High Criminal Court ruled that a criminal complaint should be filed against the officers for “misconduct in office” if the written correspondence about the materials that could not be found in the property and evidence unit was left unresponded. The court rejected the requests for hearing the person who handed over the SD card to the security as a witness and comparing the fingerprints. The next hearing will be held on June 29, 2022 (April 19).