Police raid on Mezopotamya Agency bureau in Van

* Photo: MA

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Police raided the office of Mezopotamya Agency (MA) in Turkey's Kurdish-majority eastern province of Van today (November 24).

The police raid came shortly after MA reporter Dindar Karataş had been taken into custody in a house raid earlier in the day.

As reported by MA, several police officers from the Counterterrorism Bureau raided the MA Van Bureau by the warrant of the Van 1st Penal Judgeship of Peace which was issued upon the request of the Erzurum Chief Public Prosecutor's Office. The police came to the bureau with Dindar Karataş, the detained journalist, and searched the bureau.

The officers seized the laptop used by Karataş and the letters from prison as well as 3 hard disks and a laptop of the MA. Following the search, police officers took down a report documenting the materials seized. Then, they left the bureau by handcuffing journalist Karataş behind his back.

Second raid on the bureau

Most recently, the police raided the MA Van Bureau on October 6, 2020, when MA reporters Adnan Bilen and Cemil Uğur, Jinnews reporter Şehriban Abi and journalist Nazan Sala were taken into custody.

The raid and the arrest of the journalists came after they reported it with documents that two villagers, Osman Şiban and Servet Turgut, had been dropped from a helicopter after being detained by the gendarmerie who carried out an operation in the Çatak district of Van on September 11. Servet Turgut lost his life after the incident. (TP/SD)