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ISTANBUL: A well-known Turkish journalist has been arrested until he is tried for insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Sedef Kabash was taken into custody for using a proverb about a bull on television and social media. Under the insult law, tens of thousands of people have been persecuted for targeting Erdogan since becoming president in 2014 after more than a decade as prime minister.
His lawyer, Ugur Poyraz, wrote on Twitter that he had been officially arrested during a court appearance in Istanbul on Saturday. The judge accepted the prosecution’s argument that he had threatened to flee.
Kabas, 53, has hosted a number of high-profile television shows over his 30-year career.
He was detained by police at his home in Istanbul early Saturday morning after his remarks on Tele 1 and Twitter.
Government officials condemned Kabas, while opposition politicians defended his right to free speech.
Numan Kurtuluş, the deputy chairman of the ruling party, said on Twitter that “insulting the president-elect of our nation with ugly and obscene expressions is in fact an attack on the national will.”
Opposition leader Meral Aksener used the hashtag in support of the Kaaba. “This thinking will go and justice will come to Turkey again,” he wrote.
The charge of insulting the president carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison.
According to the Ministry of Justice, more than 35,500 cases of insulting Erdogan have been filed since 2014, resulting in about 13,000 convictions.
Turkey has come under international pressure to change its legislation. In October, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that a detainee’s freedom of expression had been violated under the 2017 insult law.
Sedef Kabash was taken into custody for using a proverb about a bull on television and social media. Under the insult law, tens of thousands of people have been persecuted for targeting Erdogan since becoming president in 2014 after more than a decade as prime minister.
His lawyer, Ugur Poyraz, wrote on Twitter that he had been officially arrested during a court appearance in Istanbul on Saturday. The judge accepted the prosecution’s argument that he had threatened to flee.
Kabas, 53, has hosted a number of high-profile television shows over his 30-year career.
He was detained by police at his home in Istanbul early Saturday morning after his remarks on Tele 1 and Twitter.
Government officials condemned Kabas, while opposition politicians defended his right to free speech.
Numan Kurtuluş, the deputy chairman of the ruling party, said on Twitter that “insulting the president-elect of our nation with ugly and obscene expressions is in fact an attack on the national will.”
Opposition leader Meral Aksener used the hashtag in support of the Kaaba. “This thinking will go and justice will come to Turkey again,” he wrote.
The charge of insulting the president carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison.
According to the Ministry of Justice, more than 35,500 cases of insulting Erdogan have been filed since 2014, resulting in about 13,000 convictions.
Turkey has come under international pressure to change its legislation. In October, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that a detainee’s freedom of expression had been violated under the 2017 insult law.
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