Istanbul: The Istanbul court on Tuesday ordered a formal arrest of an AFP photographer, which was detained after covering the mass protest, reversed the prior decision to give a conditional release, saying his lawyer.
The court documents showed that photographer Yasin Akgul, who was arrested at his house before morning on Monday, was accused of “illegal rallies and march and failed to fail to spread despite warnings.
The move was condemned as “Scandlus”, in which Borders (RSF) was “condemnable” by reporters without a press watchdog.
Akgul was one of the 10 Turkish journalists, who was in a round on Monday after the day of covering the collective protests that began in Istanbul on Monday and spread to Turkey after the arrest of the city’s opposition Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu on 19 March.
On Tuesday morning, he and six other journalists were taken to Kagalion Courthouse, where they were given conditional release.
His lawyer stated what the legal observers described as an “unprecedented” U-turn, the prosecutors suddenly amended his request and asked that the court ordered his formal arrest.
It was not immediately clear whether the other six journalists also reversed their conditional release orders.
“This is the first time that a clearly recognized journalist was arrested against meetings and demonstrations on the basis of this law,” RSF’s Errol Onderoglu told AFP.
“This condemnable decision shows a very serious situation in Türkiye.”
