Deniz Yücel, German Die Welt newspaper’s correspondent in Turkey, was arrested in February 2017 in connection with a probe into the leaked e-mails of Minister Berat Albayrak, who is also President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s son-in-law.

On 27 February 2017, 13 days after his arrest, the Istanbul 9th Criminal Judgeship of Peace ruled to jail Yücel pending trial on charges of “terrorism propaganda” and “inciting animosity and hatred” in his newspaper articles.

Yücel’s detention sparked diplomatic tension with Germany. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has repeatedly said that Yücel was a German spy and a terrorist and that he will not be extradited to Germany.

Yücel’s lawyers have filed applications on his behalf with both the Turkish Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights.

In early July, news reports said that an indictment into six journalists who were first arrested in December 2016 in connection with the leaked e-mails of Berat Albayrak was completed and submitted to a court. The indictment did not list Yücel among the defendants and stated that Yücel’s case was separated from the case file, notwithstanding initial reports that he was sought for arrest as part of the same investigation.

On 5 July 2017, the European Court of Human Rights notified Yücel’s lawyers that his application has been communicated to the Turkish government and that it gave the government until 24 October 2017 to present its defense. It also announced that the German government has been invited to state its opinion on the application of Yücel, a national of both Turkey and Germany.

On 16 February 2018, Yücel was released from pre-trial detention, after a court accepted an indictment into Yücel, formally opening trial proceedings, and ruled to release him pending trial. Yücel is charged with “terrorism propaganda” and “inciting the public to hatred and enmity” in the indictment. Hours after he was released from Silivri Prison, Yücel left Turkey for Germany on a private plane.

The first hearing of Yücel’s trial was held in his absence on 28 June 2018 at the 32nd High Criminal Court of Istanbul. Yücel’s lawyer requested his immediate acquittal saying he was on trial for his journalistic activities. The court rejected the request for Yücel’s acquittal, although it agreed that Yücel can give his defense statement abroad.

The fourth hearing in Yücel’s trial took place on 16 July 2019. The presiding judge announced that the court received the Constitutional Court’s judgment concerning Yücel's application. Yücel’s lawyer asked the court to rule in line with the Constitutional Court judgment and without waiting for Yücel’s defense statement, taken in May in Berlin, to be sent to the trial court. The court decided to wait until Yücel’s statement is submitted.

Prosecutor's final opinion

The sixth hearing took place on 13 February 2020. It turned out that the prosecution had submitted their final opinion two days before the hearing, requesting the court to convict Yücel of “disseminating propaganda for the PKK/KCK terrorist group” and “inciting the public to hatred and enmity.” The prosecution asked the court to acquit Yücel of “disseminating propaganda for FETÖ/PDY” on the grounds that the objective elements of the offense could not be established.

The prosecutor then went on to request a criminal complaint to be filed against Yücel for putting the title “putschist” over a photograph of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan with a Turkish flag behind him in an article published on 6 November 2016.

Conviction on "propaganda" charge

At the final hearing, held on 16 July 2020, the court unanimously ruled to acquit Yücel of “disseminating propaganda for the FETÖ/PDY armed terrorist organization” and “incitement to hatred and enmity,” but convicted him of “disseminating propaganda for the PKK/KCK armed terrorist organization” and sentenced him to 2 years, 9 months and 22 days in prison.

The court also ordered that criminal complaints be filed against Yücel on the charges of “insulting the president” and “insulting the Turkish Republic and its institutions” over his articles published in October 2016 and November 2016, and his defense statement to the trial court.

Constitutional Court application

On 28 June 2019, the Constitutional Court issued its judgment concerning the application on behalf of Deniz Yücel, who remained in pre-trial detention in Turkey for a year before being released by the trial court’s decision in February 2018.

In its judgment, dated 28 May 2019, the top court’s Second Section ruled that Yücel’s pre-trial detention violated his rights to personal liberty and security, enshrined in Article 19 of the Constitution, and the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of the press, enshrined in Articles 26 and 28.

Compensation case

Following his release, Yücel filed a compensation case against the Turkish government, seeking TL 2,980,000 in damages for his unlawful arrest and detention in 2017.

The 17th High Criminal Court of Istanbul rejected the case on 25 September 2018. Yücel’s lawyer appealed the ruling with the 19th Criminal Chamber of the Istanbul Regional Court of Justice, an appellate court, which ruled on 8 May 2019 that the damages Yücel suffered due to his arrest and pre-trial detention be determined. The appellate court ruled to send the case file back to the trial court for a retrial.

The retrial took place on 12 September 2019. Yücel, who lives in Germany, did not attend. He was represented by his lawyer, Veysel Ok. At the end of the hearing, the court rejected the case once again.

European Court of Human Rights judgment

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled on 25 January 2022 that the pre-trial detention of Deniz Yücel between 2017 and 2018 violated three articles of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR): the right to liberty and security (Article 5/1), right to compensation for unlawful detention (Article 5/5) and freedom of expression (Article 10).

The Court held by a majority of 5 votes to 2 that Yücel had been placed and retained in pre-trial detention in the absence of plausible reasons to suspect him of committing a criminal offense and that this had also amounted to an interference with his exercise of his right to freedom of expression. The Court also held that Yücel was not awarded appropriate and sufficient compensation by the Constitutional Court for his detention.

The Court held by a majority of 4 votes to 3 that there had been no violation of the right of access to the investigation file (Article 5/4) in Yücel’s application.

The ECtHR ordered Turkey to pay Yücel 13,300 euros in compensation.