Fatih Ergin, news coordinator at Nefes Haber, was detained at his home on the evening of 27 September 2026 on the instruction of the Silivri Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office. He was referred to the courthouse the following day and remanded in custody by a criminal judgeship of peace.

The investigation into Kozinoğlu’s death was reopened on 26 August. Tamer was detained in it and released under judicial control. He was found dead at home on 27 September. A journalist, Fatih Ergin, who reported that death was detained the same evening and remanded two days later, over the job title he used to describe him.

The charge is publicly disseminating misleading information under Article 217/A of the Turkish Penal Code, which carries one to three years. Article 218 was added to the file on the basis that the offence was committed through the press and broadcasting, which increases the penalty.

The basis is a single social media post. On 27 September, Turgay Tamer, 66, was found dead at his home in Büyükçekmece. Ergin reported the death and described Tamer as a former forensic medicine employee. He subsequently corrected that description.

According to the Silivri prosecutor’s own statement, Tamer had served as a doctor on the Silivri prison campus during the period when Kaşif Kozinoğlu was held there. Tamer had been detained in the reopened investigation into Kozinoğlu’s death and released under judicial control with a travel ban. His body was sent to the Forensic Medicine Institute to determine the cause of death.

The description of Tamer as a forensic medicine employee, rather than a prison doctor, was made the basis of the charge against Ergin.

Kaşif Kozinoğlu was a former officer of the National Intelligence Organisation. He was remanded in custody in the Ergenekon proceedings and held at Silivri prison. He died there on 12 November 2011, after some eight months in detention and shortly before he was due to present his defence in court for the first time. Allegations followed about whether he had received timely medical attention and whether prison staff had been negligent. After examining camera recordings, medical records and witness statements, the Silivri Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office issued a non-prosecution decision on 10 April 2012.

Following a Justice Ministry review, the Silivri Criminal Judgeship of Peace set aside that decision on 26 August 2026 and reopened the investigation. The responsibilities of the prison administrators, gendarmerie personnel and medical staff who served there in 2011 are being re-examined. Journalists Osman Arslan and Selahattin Günday, a scriptwriter on the television series Kurtlar Vadisi Pusu and two emergency medical technicians have also been remanded in the reopened investigation.

Ergin’s lawyer, Sibel Sevinç Deveci Özçelik, announced the detention and objected to the manner in which it was carried out, saying her client would have come of his own accord had he been summoned. Ergin had been detained over social media posts once before, in January 2026, and released.

The Communication Workers’ Solidarity Network said that bringing matters of public interest to public attention is not incitement, and that the authorities should pursue fraud rather than journalists’ social media accounts.

On 26 September, two days before Ergin was remanded, the journalist Ali Tarakcı was remanded in Ankara under the same Article 217/A over a post stating that a very important minister would resign on Friday. He named no minister.

Article 217/A was added to the Penal Code in October 2022. The Venice Commission and the Council of Europe’s Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law examined the provision before it was enacted, at the request of the Parliamentary Assembly, and recommended that it not be adopted, finding its wording insufficiently clear to satisfy the requirement of legality.

Two journalists were remanded in custody within three days under a provision the Council of Europe advised Türkiye not to enact, one over an unnamed minister and one over a job title he had already corrected.