BirGün Reporter İsmail Arı Has Been İn Prison For 3 Days!

BirGün reporter İsmail Arı has been remanded in custody for the second time in a year.

Our reporter İsmail Arı was detained on charges of “insulting a public official because of his duties” and “disseminating misleading information to the public” following a complaint by former The Supreme Council for Radio and Television (RTÜK) Chair Ebubekir Şahin.

Arı was invited to the Security Branch Directorate of the Ankara Police Department at 15.30 on Tuesday, 20 October, to give a statement.

Arı went to the police headquarters with his lawyer Taylan Arı at the specified time to give his statement. He was served with a detention order there, and our reporter was suddenly taken into custody.

Arı, who spent the night of 20 October in police custody, was referred to the courthouse at around 10.00 on Wednesday, 21 October. Arı began giving his statement to the prosecutor at 12.00. His statement was completed at 13.00.

İsmail Arı was referred to the judgeship with a request that he be remanded in custody. Arı was charged with “publicly disseminating misleading information”.

The provision under which Arı was charged with “publicly disseminating misleading information” reads as follows:

“Any person who, solely with the intention of causing concern, fear or panic among the public, publicly disseminates false information concerning the country’s domestic and external security, public order and general health in a manner capable of disturbing public peace shall be punished with imprisonment for a term of one to three years.”

İsmail Arı’s questioning before the judgeship began at 16.00.

Ankara’s 6th Criminal Judgeship of Peace ordered that our reporter Arı be remanded in custody.

It was notable that the possibility of “absconding” and “tampering with evidence” were cited as grounds for the decision.

Our reporter İsmail Arı protested against the remand order.

Speaking after the questioning, Arı said: “The judge did not even listen; he interrupted the lawyers. They are sending me to prison once again for an offence that does not even carry a custodial sentence.”

After being remanded in custody, our reporter İsmail Arı was placed in the same ward (A10) at Sincan No. 2 L-Type Closed Prison where he had previously spent 75 days.

It was learned that more than 60 people were being held in the ward, which has a capacity of 28.

BirGün’s Ankara representative Nurcan Gökdemir made a statement outside Ankara Courthouse following the imprisonment of our reporter İsmail Arı. Gökdemir reacted to the remand order, stating that the accusations against Arı were based on correspondence and posts made as part of his journalistic activity.

Gökdemir said that WhatsApp correspondence undertaken by Arı to obtain a comment as part of a report he had written about former RTÜK Chair and Türk Telekom General Manager Ebubekir Şahin had been made the subject of an accusation, adding that the correspondence contained no threat, coercion or insult. She stated that Arı had also been questioned about a social media post allegedly concerning the funeral of the father of Osman Nacar, whose name had come to the fore in the fund investigation, but that no concrete image or record relating to this post had been produced.

Gökdemir stated that although Arı had gone to the police voluntarily and accompanied by his lawyers, “risk of absconding” was cited, while “tampering with evidence” was invoked even though the case was based on publicly available posts. Saying that Arı’s defence and the statements of his lawyers were interrupted during questioning before the criminal judgeship of peace, Gökdemir said: “What they want to punish here is journalism.”

Gökdemir said:

“Our colleague İsmail Arı was summoned by telephone yesterday to the Security Branch Directorate of the Ankara Police Department to give a statement. Within approximately 10 to 15 minutes, İsmail left our newspaper’s offices, accompanied by his lawyers, to go to the Ankara Police Department. We thought this was a routine statement-taking procedure. However, when we learned that persistent telephone calls had been made while he was on his way and that the police had said things to İsmail such as, ‘Where are you? Let us come and collect you,’ we realised that this was not the routine procedure we knew. About an hour later, we heard that İsmail had been detained and would be referred to Ankara Courthouse in the morning.

İsmail appeared before the prosecutor today and was referred to the criminal judgeship of peace with a request that he be remanded in custody. The accusations against İsmail were based on a WhatsApp conversation concerning a report he had previously written about Ebubekir Şahin, the former RTÜK Chair and now Türk Telekom General Manager. İsmail had repeatedly sought a comment from Ebubekir Şahin regarding his report, but because he could not reach him, he opted for WhatsApp correspondence. This WhatsApp correspondence was presented as evidence. There was no threat, no coercion, no insult, no swearing—nothing—in the WhatsApp correspondence.

The second accusation concerns a tweet whose whereabouts are unknown and which cannot be substantiated, a message posted from an X account. It is alleged that İsmail shared a photograph showing Ebubekir Şahin attending the funeral of the father of Osman Nacar, who is described as one of the principal figures in the fund scandal. Yet the prosecution could not produce an image or record relating to this.

The accusation against İsmail is the charge of ‘publicly disseminating misleading information’, which has so far formed the basis for punishing all journalists. Frankly, we could not see what misleading information there was here or where the public had been misled. No rule of law could substantiate this in any case. Even assuming that İsmail committed this offence, it is not possible for him to receive a sentence requiring him to serve time in prison for it.

We can clearly see here that... I must also point out that one of the grounds for İsmail’s imprisonment is tampering with evidence. The things they refer to as evidence are tweets and posts; these are already publicly available. A risk of absconding is mentioned; we have said that İsmail went to the Ankara Police Department on his own feet, so it is not possible to speak of a risk of absconding. A judicial process that cannot be explained by the rules of law was carried out. İsmail was sent to Sincan Prison following a swift judicial process at the criminal court of peace to which he had been referred with a request that he be remanded in custody, without being allowed to give a full statement for as long as he wished and with his lawyers being interrupted.

We know this very well: journalism is what they want to punish here. They want no one to be able to speak about the fund scandal that has emerged; they want those intending to speak to be put in prison and those who remain outside to be deterred from speaking, writing and practising journalism. But they should know that journalists will always find a way to do this work. One person may be put in prison, but others will be found to write in their place. Journalism is not a crime; we say, take your hands off us now.”

Our reporter İsmail Arı had also been detained on the night of Saturday, 21 March 2026, in Tokat, where he was visiting his wife’s family, as part of an investigation conducted by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.

Known for his reports on the country’s irregularities, particularly corruption and misconduct in public institutions, our reporter had spent 75 days in Sincan Prison on the charge of “publicly disseminating misleading information”. Arı appeared before a judge on Friday, 5 June 2026.

At the first hearing before Ankara’s 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance, Arı was ordered to be released without any judicial supervision measures, despite the prosecutor’s request that his detention be continued.

Note: This article is translated from the original article titled BirGün muhabiri İsmail Arı 3 gündür tutuklu!, published in BirGün newspaper on October 24, 2026.