Deniz Yücel is accused of insulting the president and denigrating the Turkish state and the judiciary. The writers' association »PEN Berlin« calls it a scandal that the proceedings had been opened at all.
The trial in Istanbul is scheduled to resume on October 17. In 2020, a Turkish court sentenced him in absentia to two years and nine months in prison for PKK propaganda. Yü Cel appealed the 2020 ruling. The new arrest warrant refers to articles that had already been examined at the time.