Medin was detained Thursday in Istanbul, where he arrived to cover the wave of protests in the country following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu. The journalist was incarcerated on Friday.

"I was able to send him a message through the lawyer and I had a message back," Axelsson said. "He is treated well, (but) a little bit bored."

Turkish authorities accuse Medin, who is reporting for the newspaper Dagens ETC, of membership of a terrorist organisation and "insulting the president", Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

They notably accuse him of taking part in a demonstration by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Stockholm in January 2023 during which a puppet representing Erdogan was mocked.

However, Axelsson said, "The accusations are false, he is a journalist, nothing else."

"He has been reporting on the country (Turkey) for many years, mainly on democracy and human rights," she added.

Medin was also arrested by Syrian security forces during a 2015 reporting trip and held in isolation for a week.