Zeynel Abidin Bulut, an editor for the Kurdish-language weekly newspaper Xwebün, is on release pending trial after he was arrested – alongside 14 other Kurdish journalists and a media worker - in the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakır in June 2022.
In April 2023, after around 10 months in jail, Bulut, the 15 others who were detained alongside him, plus three other journalists, who were not arrested, were indicted on the charge of “being a member of a (terrorist) organization”. Their trial began on July 11, 2023, in Diyarbakır and the next day, it was reported that 15 of the defendants, including Bulut, were released pending the outcome of the trial. Another defendant, Safiye Alagaş, was earlier released pending trial in June.
The trial continues in Diyarbakır with the next hearing set for November 10, 2026.
As of August 2026, Bulut and the other defendants remain under a foreign travel ban.
Bulut previously worked as a reporter for pro-Kurdish outlets Dicle News Agency (DİHA) and Kurdish-language daily Azadiya Welat before they were shuttered by a government decree in 2016. He is currently an editor at Xwebün and also hosts a show about Kurdish history on the outlet’s YouTube channel. The weekly newspaper started publication in December 2019 and focuses on the Kurdish language, politics, culture, and history. Bulut is also the bookkeeper for the local press freedom group Dicle Fırat Journalists Association.
Case history
In the early hours of June 8, 2022, Diyarbakır police raided several locations in the city, including journalists’ houses and newsrooms, and took into custody 20 journalists and media workers, along with a citizen who was once interviewed by one of the journalists. On June 15, 15 of those journalists, including Bulut, and one media worker were jailed by a court pending trial.
The police raided Bulut’s house and confiscated two wall clocks, which were handmade items made by inmates in prison, books, and “all his journalism-related material” as evidence, his wife, Gülistan Bulut, told local news outlet Gazete Duvar; they also raided his parents’ house in the city of Mardin.
Resul Temur, a lawyer who represents the 15 journalists and the media worker, told independent news website Bianet in June 2022 his clients were questioned about the angle they took on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a militant group and political party that Turkey designates as a terrorist group, and whether the content the journalists created for broadcast by European outlets was considered pro-PKK. Most of the journalists either work for pro-Kurdish media outlets or independent production companies that provide content for other outlets, according to news reports and CPJ’s interviews with local journalists.
Diyarbakır courts denied the journalists’ appeals of their arrests and their pretrial detention on August 22 and September 8, 2022.
Temur told CPJ in an in-person interview in November 2022 that his clients were being held at Diyarbakır Prison and remained under arrest but had not been indicted.
CPJ emailed the Turkish Ministry of Justice in October 2022 and September 2026 for comment but did not receive any reply.