Journalist Yalçın released under judicial control

Journalist Nurcan Yalçın has been released after three days in custody at the Diyarbakır police anti-terror headquarters. A court in the city on Monday rejected an application by the public prosecutor’s office to issue an arrest warrant against the journalist and ordered her release – but imposed reporting requirements.

Nurcan Yalçın was arrested by special police units on Friday and taken to the anti-terrorist headquarters in Amed. The basis of the arrest was not disclosed, and a 24-hour ban on lawyers was issued. As a result, she was denied access to a lawyer for a day. On the second day in police custody, the investigative file in the journalist’s case was made confidential by the Diyarbakir Prosecutor General’s Office.

The allegations against Yalçın are now known. She is being accused of “propaganda for a terrorist organization”. The allegations mainly concern her work, the journalist explained after her release from police custody. Specifically, it concerns interviews and articles that came about in 2015 about Sur in the run-up to the curfew imposed on the borough of Amed. After the destruction by Turkish security forces during the military siege in winter 2015/2016, residential areas were nationalized and the population was expelled.