Turkey Arrested Journalist over Personal Information Leak

The Turkish government imprisoned a journalist on Tuesday pending trial after he told police hackers had stolen personal data from government websites. Some of the information, including President Tayyip Erdogan's ID card, was shared with him as proof, the lawyer said.

In a tweet, Ibrahim Haskologlu, an independent journalist, illustrated the announcement with a partially obscured picture of what he said was Erdogan's ID card. His lawyer, Emrah Karatay, stated that his client was arrested on a charge of illegally obtaining and disseminating personal information in relation to his social media posts.

Haskologlu stated last week that he was contacted by a group of hackers two months ago and informed that they had accessed personal data on Turks from government websites. Furthermore, Haskologlu also published a photograph he claimed was Hakan Fidan's ID card, the head of Turkey's National Intelligence Agency, in addition to the purported photo of Erdogan's ID. Most of the information on the cards was obscured.

"He was arrested for failure to notify prosecutors," Karatay said, adding that Haskologlu had notified numerous authorities without any action being taken. The journalist thought it was his duty to warn people and posted the pictures. Now he has been arrested - that's all," Karatay said, adding that the police searched Haskologlu's home when he was arrested last night.

Istanbul police was not immediately available for comment. NTV reported that the interior ministry had filed a complaint against Haskologlu following his posts, which resulted in the Istanbul prosecutor's office investigating the matter.

The Turkish government is one of the top jailers of journalists in the world, and the mainstream media is controlled by Erdogan's close aides. Human rights groups have accused the Turkish government of suppressing the media.