Turkey frees a Swedish journal who was convicted for insulting President Erdogan | World News
A Swedish journal arrested in Turkey in March when he traveled there to cover nationwide protests was released and returned home to Sweden on Saturday.
Swedish Prime Miner Ulf Krersson wrote on X that “hard work in relative silence has paid off” and that Joakim Medin’s release was due to intensive lobing the Swedish foreign minry and European colleagues.“Welcome home Joakim!” Krersson wrote on X.
Hårt arbete i relativ tystnad har gett resultat. Den svenske journalen Joakim Medin är på väg från Turkiet hem till Sverige. Han landar om några timmar.
Jag vill säga tack till de medarbetare på UD som, under utrikesminer Maria Malmer Stenergards ledning, har jobbat…
— Ulf Krersson (@SwedishPM) May 16, 2025
Last month, a Turkish court had convicted Medin of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Medin was given an 11-month suspended prison term, but initial reports said he would remain in custody awaiting the outcome of a separate trial on terrorism-related charges.
Medin, a journal with the daily Dagens ETC, was detained March 27 as he arrived at anbul airport to cover last month’s nationwide protests following the arrest of anbul’s popular mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu.
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Swedish journal Joakim Medin with his wife journal Sofie Axelsson attends a press conference in Stockholm, Sweden, Saturday May 17, 2025. (AP)
The journal was jailed days later on charges of insulting Erdogan and membership of the outlawed Kurdan Workers’ Party, or PKK. Swedish media reported that Medin landed early Saturday at Stockholm airport, where he was welcomed his wife and the Swedish Foreign Miner Maria Malmer Stenergard.“All is well after all. I’m really tired in body and mind.
But I feel good,” he said, according to Dagens ETC. “The pressure on my chest disappeared as soon as we lifted off the ground and we started heading home.”Medin also said later on Saturday that “I’ve been thinking from day one about what to say at this moment. Long live freedom: freedom of the press, freedom of speech and freedom of movement,” Sveriges Television reported.
Medin said that he spent his prison time in solitary confinement in a ward for political prisoners. He said that he had not been subjected to violence, but that the isolation took its toll. Krersson said on X that “it is well known that Sweden and Turkey have different views on quite a few and big things.
But we have also developed a climate of cooperation that allows us to discuss quite difficult issues.”Local media reported that while Medin’s separate trial on terrorism charges would still take place, he would not be required to attend it.
