Turkish authorities have reportedly detained an Ethereum developer known as Fede’s Intern in Izmir.
While details about his detention remain sparse as of press time, Fede’s Intern stated that the Turkish authorities had accused him of enabling others to “misuse” the blockchain network.
“The minister of internal affairs of Turkey is saying I helped people misuse Ethereum.”
However, no concrete examples or evidence of how he aided this have been made public, and the lack of detail has fueled skepticism among some industry observers.
“Privacy is not a crime. Go after lawbreakers, not builders.”
Despite the incident, Fede’s Intern stressed that he would cooperate with the Turkish government in their investigations. He said:
“I’m fully open to cooperate with any authorities from Turkey or any country, we didn’t help anybody do anything, but we will also defend ourselves.”
These high-profile cases have led many in the crypto space to voice their concerns about increasing legal pressures on blockchain developers.
According to him:
“I can tell easily that it’s unrelated to Turkiye because the law enforcement agent would have arrested the developer at the border control. Most likely, something is up with Interpol or Europol, and Turkish law enforcement is waiting for additional information to decide what to do.”
