Journalist Joakim Medin was arrested during a trip to Istanbul on assignment for the newspaper ETC at the end of March. On Friday, he called his wife Sofie Axelsson from prison. She was then participating in the journalism conference Gräv in Borlänge
He was as usual. He sounded happy. Could laugh. And I could tease him a bit, says Sofie Axelsson to Dagens ETC.
The couple only got to talk to each other for ten minutes, but Medin managed to tell her that he had received some books in prison.
"Can take years"
The idea behind the trip to Turkey was to cover the extensive political protests in Turkey. Medin was, however, arrested at the airport and has been imprisoned since March 27. The charges are not specified, but are said to involve involvement in a terrorist organization and insulting Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
In an interview with his own newspaper, editor-in-chief Andreas Gustavsson says that the legal process risks dragging on.
Formally, Turkey could let this process go on for a very long time. It can stretch over many months or even years before it even becomes transparent and the lawyers have something concrete to work with. It's just hoping and working for it not to go that far, he says.
The Minister: "Focusing"
Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard (The Moderate Party) does not want to comment on the timeline that Gustavsson paints.
I cannot speculate about it at this early stage, but I am fully focused on the government's work, which aims to bring Joakim home as soon as possible, she says.
Earlier in the week, Joakim Medin's appeal against his detention was denied in a court in Ankara. According to the court, the suspicions of crime are strong. The Foreign Minister does not want to speculate about whether Medin's situation may have worsened after that decision.
I cannot make a legal assessment.
