"They're picking me up for questioning now", wrote Joakim Medin in a message to his editorial staff at the newspaper Dagens ETC at lunchtime on Thursday. He had just landed in Istanbul to monitor the development in Turkey.
After that, no one heard from him for a day, said the newspaper's editor-in-chief Andreas Gustavsson about his colleague to TT at lunchtime on Friday.
A few hours later, Gustavsson told TV4 that he had received new information from the Foreign Ministry.
He was arrested directly upon arrival in Turkey, and was reportedly wanted by Turkish authorities.
He has been taken to a prison. Some form of hearing has been held there with a judge and prosecutor. He is thus formally suspected of something that we do not know what it is yet.
According to reports in Turkish media, Joakim Medin, who is imprisoned in Maltepe prison in Istanbul, is accused of, among other things, insulting Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and being a member of a terrorist organization.
Been in contact
The head of the Foreign Ministry's consular unit, Svante Liljegren, says in Ekot on Sveriges Radio that they have had contact with Medin.
What I can say is that our consulate general in Istanbul is in contact with the Turkish authorities about this, and our consulate has also been in contact with Medin himself, and is providing him with consular support.
When asked how Joakim Medin is doing, Liljegren says that due to secrecy, he cannot go into further details, but:
I would like to say that he is doing well under the circumstances.
Joakim Medin is described as an experienced foreign correspondent with Turkey as one of his areas of expertise. Ten years ago, he was imprisoned in Syria, after being in the Kurdish areas of the country. He sat in an isolation cell for a week before being released.
He has visited Turkey as a journalist several times but has not had problems with the authorities before.
"Always serious"
Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard (M) says in a written comment to TT shortly after 18:
"We have had contact with Turkey's ambassador in Sweden to clarify the allegations against Joakim Medin and to demand swift consular access."
"It is serious that journalist Joakim Medin has been detained in connection with his entry into Turkey. Joakim is receiving consular support and is in contact with the consulate general in Istanbul."
