KHK TV journalists arrested: 1,000-lira vine-leaf transfer questioned

KHK TV editor Ahmet Erkan Yiğitsözlü, journalist Tuba Demir and accountant Servet Topuz have been arrested. The three, who were detained on 9 November as part of an investigation conducted by the Osmaniye Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, were sent to prison on 12 November after a three-day detention period. KHK Platforms Spokesperson Münir Korkmaz and one other person, who were detained in the same investigation, were released under judicial control conditions.

Yiğitsözlü was detained on 9 November in Ankara, and Korkmaz the same day in a police raid on his home in Adana; both were taken to Osmaniye, where the investigation is being conducted. During the detention period, access to lawyers was restricted for 24 hours. Yiğitsözlü's statement was taken on the night of 11 November at the Anti-Terror Branch Directorate.

Police made Yiğitsözlü's bank transactions, digital correspondence and relations with other people the subject of the accusation. It was alleged that Yiğitsözlü carried out "collecting funds, providing funds and using funds on behalf of the organization" with people including Korkmaz, Demir and Topuz. Yiğitsözlü rejected the accusations, saying, "The money transfers identified are matters that exist in the ordinary course of life." This investigation corresponds to Yiğitsözlü's 15th detention.

In the interrogation, transfers made for food purchases in 2023 and 2024 came up: 1,000 TL sent on 30 May 2023 with the description "fee for 3 cans of Erbaa brined vine leaves" and 1,550 TL sent on 5 September 2024 for tomato paste and vine leaves. He was also asked about 1,000 TL sent for sucuk and 3,000 TL in exchange for sucuk and pastırma. Yiğitsözlü said the payments were the price of the products he bought.

The journalist was also asked about the transfers he made after the February 2023 earthquakes with the descriptions "earthquake aid" and "for earthquake hardship"; Yiğitsözlü stated that he passed the money on to people in need.

The file also included messages Tuba Demir sent to Yiğitsözlü via Signal in 2022 asking about the status of a fund. Yiğitsözlü explained that the correspondence related to a project they had prepared for KHK TV and submitted to the European Endowment for Democracy (EED), that 8,500 euros had been deposited with Mustafa Kaya, who handled the application and follow-up of the project, and that about 1,000 euros of that was payment for Demir's work.

Yiğitsözlü had previously been detained 14 times, and the Osmaniye 2nd Heavy Penal Court sentenced him to 6 years and 3 months in prison on 15 October 2024 on the charge of "membership in an armed terrorist organization."

Istanbul MP Mustafa Yeneroğlu posted the following on his social media account: "Three kilos of sucuk, five kilos of tomato paste, a can of vine leaves... What I came across while reading a terrorism-financing file about a journalist. The most normalized criminal evidence of recent years." DEM Party Kocaeli MP Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, DEM Party Group Deputy Chair Sezai Temelli, CHP Izmir MP Yüksel Taşkın and DEVA Party Ankara MP İdris Şahin, as well as the Green Left Party, the KESK Adana Branches Platform, the Eğitim Sen Adana Branch and the Human Rights Association Adana Branch, also reacted to the process.