A plane from Istanbul landed shortly after midnight in Sweden. In a video posted by Andreas Gustavsson, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Dagens ETC", on X, Sofie Axelsson, Medin's heavily pregnant wife, is seen embracing him as he steps off the plane.
"Now you're home, Joakim", writes Gustavsson.
Dagens ETC was Medin's employer during his reporting trip to Turkey when he was arrested.
Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard (M) was also present at Arlanda to receive him.
It's good. It's relatively good. Very tired, said Medin to Malmer Stenergard after landing, according to Expressen and Aftonbladet.
Joakim Medin flew home on a regular flight with a layover in Berlin, according to the newspapers. According to earlier information from Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson (M), he traveled back to Sweden accompanied by personnel from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Kristersson: No concessions
"Hard work in relative silence has yielded results", writes Kristersson on the Government Offices' website.
In response to a question from SVT, Kristersson says that Turkey did not receive anything in exchange for releasing Joakim Medin.
No, there are no concessions, says the Prime Minister to SVT.
The news of Medin's release came to Medin's wife from lawyer Veysel Ok on Thursday. Medin, who has been imprisoned for 51 days, was sentenced to a conditional sentence for insulting Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
He has also been charged with terrorist crimes. Those charges still stand despite Medin being allowed to leave the country and will be tried in his absence, according to Dagens ETC.
Talks with Turkish Foreign Ministry
Intensive diplomatic efforts preceded the release, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Government Offices. Among other things, Maria Malmer Stenergard spoke with her Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan in connection with the NATO meeting in Turkish Belek.
I'm not going into what was said in our conversation.
Following the news of the release, Malmer Stenergard writes on X that she feels "an enormous pride over the employees at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the foreign missions for the work we have done in 51 days".
The organization Utgivarna is delighted with the news:
"It's an enormous relief for his relatives and colleagues, but also for journalism in Sweden. Journalists must be able to report and scrutinize without risking being arrested and charged just for doing their job", writes Utgivarna's vice chairman Anne Lagercrantz, who is also CEO of SVT.
Medin has consistently denied any wrongdoing and says that the charges relate to his journalism.
Journalist Joakim Medin traveled to Istanbul on assignment for Dagens ETC on March 27 to report on widespread protests in the country, following the arrest of Istanbul's mayor Ekrem Imamoglu.
Medin, who has visited Turkey as a journalist several times, was arrested directly at the airport.
He was then transferred to the high-security prison Marmara in Silivri outside Istanbul, where many of Turkey's political prisoners are or have been held. Medin was held on the same ward as the imprisoned mayor Imamoglu.
On April 23, he was charged with participating in a terrorist organization, spreading terrorist propaganda, and insulting the president.
In a first trial in Ankara regarding the charge of insulting Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, he was given a conditional sentence for insulting the president.
He was released on May 16 and landed in Sweden shortly after midnight on May 17. But even though Medin has been released and has been allowed to leave the country, the charges of terrorist crimes still stand and will be tried in Turkey in his absence, according to Dagens ETC.
