Furkan KARABAY
Image Credit: Furkan Karabay
Journalist and author Furkan Karabay faced ongoing judicial harassment throughout the year.
Already sentenced in April 2025 to a suspended prison term of almost two years on defamation charges after he accused President Erdoğan’s family of corruption, Karabay was detained on 15 May 2025 and sentenced on 2 December 2025 to four years and three months in prison for ‘insulting the president’, ‘insulting a public official’ and ‘making targets of those who were tasked to combat terrorism’ on account of his journalistic work. He was released on 2 December 2025 after 201 days in pre-trial detention.
Karabay was charged on 5 September 2025 in relation to his reference to the names and photos of judicial officials in his reporting on the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality investigations (İBB), which prosecutors claimed amounted to making them potential targets for terrorist organisations. The ‘insult’ charge was based on Karabay’s public recall of past remarks by President Erdoğan, in the context of a local official’s deteriorating health. Karabay denied any wrongdoing, emphasizing that all the information he shared was already in the public domain. PEN International, its Young Writers Committee, and PEN Centres across the world actively campaigned for Karabay, notably translating and publishing some of his short stories. PEN International has called for his sentencing to be overturned on appeal.
Furkan Karabay, born 15 May 1996, has worked with several media outlets in Türkiye, including Medyascope, Cumhuriyet, 10Haber, Oda TV, and Gerçek Gündem. He notably specialises in judicial developments. In 2024, Karabay published Gurban, a book detailing his investigation into businessman Mubariz Mansimov’s activities with the government in Türkiye as well as his rise and fall.
Update: On 23 January 2026, Karabay was placed under house arrest on suspicion of ‘publicly spreading misleading information’ and ‘making targets of those who were tasked to combat terrorism’, in relation to his reporting on the case targeting the İBB. PEN International called for his release and an end of his judicial harassment.