MEDIA MONITORING DATABASE
Kobanî Trial’s Key Witness Files Complaint, Diren Yurtsever Indicted
RELATED PERSON OR INSTITUTION
Diren Yurtsever
CITY
İstanbul
YEAR OF INTERFERENCE
2025
LAST UPDATED
06/03/2025
TYPE OF STATEMENT
Political
MEDIUM
Internet
News Agency
THE TITLE OF WHOSE RIGHT IS INTERFERED
Chief Editor
RIGHTS GUARANTEED UNDER THE RIGHT OF FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
Right to Impart Information and Ideas
TYPE OF INTERFERENCE
Judicial Interference
Criminal Courts
Sentence to imprisonment
THE LEGAL GROUNDS FOR INTERFERENCE
Anti-Terror Law
Art. 6/3

The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office has filed a lawsuit against Diren Yurtsever, editor in chief of Mezopotamya Ajansı (MA), following a complaint by Sami Baran, who testified as a witness in the Kobanî Trial. The prosecutor accuses Yurtsever of disclosing the identity of an informant (Article 6/3 of the Anti-Terror Law – TMK) and seeks his prosecution for several reports published by the agency in 2021 and 2022, including “Kobane iddianamesinde çelişen tanık beyanları”, “Kobane Davası’nda itirafçılar dinlenecek”, and “Ankara-Kobane Davası’nda mahkeme heyeti, itirafçı Sami Baran ve Kerem Gökalp’in haftaya dinlenmesine karar verdi.”

The Istanbul 23rd High Criminal Court has accepted the indictment. Yurtsever is facing 1 to 3 years of imprisonment and a judicial fine ranging from 1,000 to 5,000 days.