Journalist Ali Çağatay was released

IBB Culture Inc. Journalist Ali Çağatay, who was arrested on the grounds of his social media post regarding the kidnapping of Deputy General Manager Erhan Karaal, appeared before the judge for the first time after approximately 2.5 months of detention.

While the prosecutor's office wanted Çağatay to be punished and continue his detention, the court decided to release him with a travel ban.

Making his defense at the hearing held at the Istanbul 5th Criminal Court of First Instance, Çağatay stated that he did not blame the entire Police Department in his post and said, "On the contrary, I protected the honor of the Police Department in a way."

Arguing that there is no information or document in the file indicating that his post was a lie or fake, Çağatay said about the detention process: "When I was referred to the courthouse, the prosecutor sent me to arrest without seeing me or taking my statement."

Çağatay's lawyer, Aslı Kazan, said that no investigation was made into the content of the post during the investigation phase, and it was not established that the post was false or misleading.

In its opinion, the prosecutor's office demanded that Çağatay be punished and continue his detention for "publicly disseminating misleading information to the public" and "publicly insulting the Police Department".

The court decided to release Çağatay with a ban on going abroad, taking into account the fact that his defense was taken, there was no evidence left to collect, and the time he spent in detention. The hearing was postponed to October 1.