A Turkish court has jailed four people pending trial in the investigation that led to the state takeover of Halk TV, Turkey’s leading pro-opposition TV station, Deutsche Welle’s Turkish service reported on Saturday.
Harika Akkaya, Murat Koçak, Süleyman Özen and Mehmet Necati Yağcı were jailed, while four other detainees were put under house arrest and four were released under judicial supervision.
The decisions completed court proceedings for 12 people detained in an investigation into the broadcaster’s owner, Cafer Mahiroğlu, on allegations of bribery, bid rigging and money laundering.
The rulings came as Halk TV Editor-in-Chief Suat Toktaş resigned on Friday, refusing to work under state-appointed management, while journalist Kürşad Oğuz also announced his departure, according to the Medyascope news website.
“I resigned as Halk TV editor-in-chief, refusing to work under a trustee,” Toktaş wrote on X.
Police raided the station’s İstanbul headquarters at dawn on Wednesday, searching the building and preventing employees from entering as the incoming management halted live broadcasts.
The Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF), a state body, was appointed to manage Halk TV and other companies owned by or linked to Mahiroğlu, replacing their management through a court order.
The case concerns alleged bribery and bid rigging in municipal contracts in İzmir, a city on Turkey’s Aegean coast, and the suspected transfer of proceeds to companies linked to Mahiroğlu, according to the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.
A court also blocked access to Halk TV’s social media accounts as part of the investigation.
Mahiroğlu, who lives in London, has denied the accusations and called for the disclosure of financial records used against him, saying seven members of his family were among those detained.
The seizure was intended to divert attention from an investment fund scandal involving figures linked to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), Mahiroğlu told Agence France-Presse after the raid.
The fund crisis erupted in September when investment funds could not meet withdrawal requests amid suspected share-price manipulation, prompting Turkey’s securities regulator to order the liquidation of 131 funds managed by seven companies.
Halk TV’s final live interview before its programming was interrupted concerned that scandal, according to Human Rights Watch.
The raid also coincided with the start of jailed İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu’s defense in a corruption trial that Halk TV had covered.
İmamoğlu, Erdoğan’s main political rival, has been jailed pending trial since March 2025 and denies accusations of bribery, bid rigging and money laundering, describing the prosecution as an attempt to block his presidential bid.
The takeover has prompted condemnation from press unions and rights organizations, with Amnesty International calling it “a brutal blow to media freedom” and demanding the restoration of Halk TV’s independent operations.
The intervention follows the takeover of the pro-opposition TELE1 broadcaster in October 2025 after its editor-in-chief, Merdan Yanardağ, was detained in an espionage investigation that also targeted İmamoğlu.
Turkey ranks 163rd among 180 countries and territories in the 2026 World Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which estimates that 90 percent of the country’s national media outlets are under government control.
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