Swedish journalist Joakim Medin, detained in Turkey since March on charges of "insulting" President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and alleged ties to terrorism, has been released and is returning home, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson announced on Friday.
"Swedish journalist Joakim Medin is on his way home from Turkey to Sweden," Kristersson wrote on X, adding that the 40-year-old reporter would "land in a few hours."
The prime minister credited Sweden’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, led by Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard, for their "intensive work" on the case, as well as European allies who assisted in securing Medin’s release. "Hard work in relative silence has paid off," Kristersson said.
Medin, a reporter for Swedish newspaper Dagens ETC, was detained upon arriving in Istanbul on March 27. He had traveled to cover protests sparked by the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, a prominent opposition figure who was re-elected last year but later detained in a separate case.
Turkish authorities accused Medin of participating in a demonstration in Stockholm in January 2023, where a mannequin resembling Erdoğan was hung outside city hall. He faced an 11-month suspended sentence for "insulting the president" and was separately charged with "membership in a terrorist organization," allegations he denied.
Though the insult charge carried a suspended sentence, Medin remained in custody pending trial on the terrorism-related accusation. His case unfolded amid a broader crackdown on dissent in Turkey, where nearly 1,900 people were arrested in recent protests.
The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), designated a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies, announced this month it would disband its armed insurgency—a development that may have influenced Medin’s release.
Medin’s return marks the resolution of a high-profile case that had drawn international attention to Turkey’s press freedom record.