Arrest order issued in Turkey for German-Turkish journalist Yucel

A Turkish court issued on Thursday an arrest warrant for German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yucel, who has been facing a lawsuit since 2021 over allegations of publicly insulting the president and state authorities.

The Istanbul court said that Yucel did not respond to calls for having his defense statement delivered in court.

Yucel was arrested in Turkey in February 2017 on "terror" charges, over his news reports and interviews published by Die Welt. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused him a few weeks later of being "a German agent and a representative of the PKK [the Kurdistan Workers' Party]."

After being kept in custody for a year, Yucel was released and subsequently left Turkey to return to Germany in February 2018.

In July 2020 an Istanbul court sentenced him to a prison term of two years, nine months and 22 days for "disseminating propaganda for the PKK."

In January 2022, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that Turkey violated Yucel's rights to liberty and security, to compensation for unlawful detention and to freedom expression

In June 2021, a new lawsuit was launched against Yucel over insulting the president and authorities.