11/11/2026 | Writer: Kaos GL
Kaos GL Supervisory Board members Selin Berghan, Burçin and Metin, imprisoned as part of the “My Family Is Safe” operations, have been ordered released. The court ruled to keep the association's imprisoned Executive Board members and journalist Tuğba Tekerek in pretrial detention.
A release order has been issued for Kaos GL Supervisory Board members Selin Berghan, Burçin and Metin, who were imprisoned as part of the “My Family Is Safe” operations launched on September 12.
The court ruled to continue the pretrial detention of the association's Executive Board members Nedime Erdoğan, Umut Derin, Janset Kalan and Baran. It also ordered the continued detention of journalist Tuğba Tekerek, whose reporting was published on KaosGL.org.
The first hearing in the case is scheduled for December 24 at 11:00 a.m. at the Ankara 27th Criminal Court of First Instance.
LGBTI+ news reports and artistic content cited as grounds for criminal charges
In an indictment prepared on October 28 by the Cybercrime Bureau of the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, 17 people, including Kaos GL executives, members and journalists, were charged with “violating the Law on Associations,” “obscenity in places visible to children” and “facilitating the publication of obscene materials.”
The prosecutor's office cited news reports, cultural and artistic content, and images published on Kaos GL's website and social media accounts as grounds for the charges. The indictment alleged that these posts “violated public morality” and “encouraged children to become homosexual.”
The content cited in support of the charges included a review of the series Agatha All Along, which features LGBTI+ characters; journalist Tuğba Tekerek's report on anti-LGBTI+ laws in Georgia; a news article about athlete Campbell Harrison kissing his boyfriend at the 2024 Paris Olympics; and posts about queer art.
Prosecutor's office seeks punishment of association executives
The prosecutor's office argued that the posts had been published through the association's official accounts and sought to hold members of its Executive Board and Supervisory Board responsible.
It requested that all 17 defendants be punished individually on charges of violating the Law on Associations and obscenity.
Lawyer Oya Aydın: “Pretrial detention has become a form of ill-treatment”
Lawyer Oya Aydın, who is following the case, criticized the continued imprisonment of Kaos GL executives, stating:
“Keeping Executive Board members in pretrial detention for an offense that would not even result in time served in prison has become a form of ill-treatment.”
Aydın said that depriving the executives of their freedom for months on the basis of association activities, news reports and social media posts was disproportionate. Emphasizing that pretrial detention had turned into a means of punishment, she argued that the charges in the case did not justify their continued imprisonment:
“The decision to release three people is positive, but there is no legal justification whatsoever for keeping our other friends in pretrial detention. Pretrial detention must not be turned into a means of punishment. All our friends must be released immediately.”
Tags: human rights, media, life, lgbti
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