Murat Ağırel was arrested for the news he did not make: It was revealed that the photo in the case was published by Tamar Tanrıyar months ago.

There has been a remarkable development regarding the allegations against our writer Murat Ağırel, who was arrested within the scope of the investigation carried out by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office against the suspects, including Deputy Mustafa Sarıgül and his son Emir Sarıgül.

Cumhuriyet determined that a critical photo among the documents that Ağırel allegedly leaked to the Sarıgül family in the file was shared with the public by a YouTube publisher named Tamar Tanrıyar on February 6, 2026.

It was revealed that Tanrıyar, who was previously detained on the charge of "insulting the president" and released under judicial control, and who is known for his publications targeting many people, featured the photo in question in his publication titled "Sarıgül loves protection".

Tanrıyar was seen saying in the broadcast, "As this episode about the Sarıgüls ends, I will only show you one photo. Take a good look at this photo. I will reveal all the secrets between Emir Sarıgül and Mustafa Sarıgül and the person in this photo, which has a very important place in their lives. Documents, photographs, evidence... Once I start a news story, I will definitely continue it."

With this information obtained by Cumhuriyet, Murat Ağırel's lawyer objected to the arrest decision and submitted a petition for release to the court. In the objection application, attention was drawn to Tanrıyar's publication and confessions months ago.

The following statements were included in the petition submitted to the court:

"Moreover, it is obvious that Tanrıyar published only one photo, stated at the beginning of the video that there was an accusation of money laundering, and did not make any news about this issue in his subsequent publications. This admission of Tanrıyar, who stated that he had documents, evidence and photographs in his hand; makes the claim that he obtained the documents attributed to the client and gave them to Sarıgüller, and that Sarıgüller threatened the German complainants and Sinan Çampınar for this reason, completely unfounded. Because this publication "It was made in February 2026 and shared with the public. This is the most concrete evidence that Çampınar conveyed the documents to other people and that the Sarıgüller were thus aware of the issue. Even if the alleged threat crime took place, there is no causal link with the client."

Cumhuriyet newspaper writer Murat Ağırel was arrested on October 19 on the allegation of "aiding a criminal organization" within the framework of the investigation carried out against the Sarıgül family.

The prosecutor's office claimed that the documents regarding the allegations of Sinan Çampınar, who lives in Germany, were forwarded to the Sarıgül family by Ağırel and that the complainants were threatened in this way.

In his statement, Ağırel stated that he kept the allegations forwarded to him at the research stage, and that he did not report suspicious data that he could not confirm, as per his journalistic responsibility, and that he was accused of a news story he did not write.