Police detain finance manager of Turkish daily Sözcü after warrant

ISTANBUL

AP photo

Police detained the finance manager of critical daily Sözcü on May 23, days after detention warrants were issued for four of the newspaper’s staff members as a part of an investigation into the Gülen movement, which is accused of being behind the July 2016 failed coup attempt, state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.

Yonca Yücekaleli, accompanied by her lawyer, arrived at the prosecutor’s office at Istanbul’s Çağlayan courthouse on May 23 and subsequently gave herself in.

“Yücekaleli wanted to come to the courthouse and testify upon reports of the detention warrant on her. We have waited for around three hours, but they did not take her testimony. She was later detained and taken to the police headquarters,” lawyer İsmail Yılmaz told reporters.

She was among the four staff members who received detention warrants on May 19, including the daily’s license holder Burak Albay.

Yücekaleli was later transferred to police headquarters upon the prosecutor’s instruction.

The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office had issued detention warrants for Akbay, the online manager of Sözcü, Mediha Olgun, Yücekaleli and İzmir reporter Gökmen Ulu.

They are accused of “being a member of a terror organization and committing crime on behalf of the organization,” “assault against the president,” and “armed insurgency against the Turkish government.”

Ulu and Olgun were detained during a police operation, while Akbay was reported to be abroad.

Police had also conducted searches inside the residences of the journalists.