Sweden‘s Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard met with her Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, in Warsaw on Thursday to push for the release of Swedish journalist Joakim Medin, who has been convicted in Turkey for insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The meeting occurred during an informal gathering of EU foreign affairs ministers, according to Sweden’s foreign ministry.

Medin, a reporter for the Swedish newspaper Dagens ETC, was arrested on March 27 at Istanbul Airport while on assignment covering mass protests in Turkey. He was sentenced to an 11-month suspended sentence by a Turkish court for allegedly insulting Erdogan. The charges stemmed from his reported attendance at a Stockholm protest in January 2023, where an effigy of Erdogan was displayed. However, Medin maintains he was not in Sweden during the demonstration.

Despite the court’s order for Medin’s release, he remains imprisoned while awaiting trial on a separate charge of being a member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a group deemed a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies. Medin denies the accusation.

Sweden’s Foreign Minister Stenergard emphasized her demand for Medin’s immediate return to Sweden during her discussion with Fidan.

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