Turkish journalist arrested for defaming President Erdogan | Recep Tayyip Erdogan News
Thousands of people have been charged and convicted of insulting Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the seven years since he became President.
A Turkish court has sentenced a well-known journalist, Sedef Kabas, to life in prison while awaiting trial on charges of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in connection with a law that has led to thousands of charges.
Police detained Kabas early Saturday morning and took him to Istanbul police station before being transferred to a city court, which ruled in his favor.
The alleged insult was a proverbial statement about the palace that Kabas spoke on television on television and on his Twitter account, which criticized government officials.
“When a cow goes up to the palace, it is not a king, but the palace becomes a barn,” he tweeted.
Fahrettin Altun, head of Turkey’s communications department, criticized the statement.
“The dignity of the presidency is the dignity of our country … I condemn the insulting remarks made to our president and his office,” Altun said.
Abdulhamit Gul, Turkey’s Minister of Justice, also said on Twitter that Kabas “got what he deserved” because of his “illegal” words.
‘Illegal’ arrest
Kabas was sent to Bakirkoy Prison in Istanbul, his lawyer Ugur Poyraz said, adding that he had appealed the “illegal” ruling on Monday. “We hope that Turkey can get back to normal in the near future,” Poyraz said.
Merdan Yanardag, editor-in-chief of Tele 1’s channel, in which Kabas commented, strongly criticized his arrest.
“His arrest at 2pm on suspicion of robbery is illegal,” he wrote on television. “This is an attempt to intimidate journalists, journalists and the public.”
An insult to the president carries a maximum sentence of one to four years in prison.
RTUK Turkish media outlets secretly launched an investigation into Tele 1 over “unofficial remarks directed at our President”, their chairman, Ebubekir Sahin, wrote late Friday.
Insulting Erdogan
Last October, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) petitioned Turkey to amend the law, stating that imprisonment in violation of the law violates the right to freedom of expression.
Thousands of people have been indicted and convicted of insulting Erdogan in the seven years since he resigned as prime minister.
In 2020, 31,297 investigations were conducted in connection with the case, 7,790 cases were dropped, and 3,325 were convicted, according to the Ministry of Justice. Those figures were slightly lower than the previous year.
As of 2014, the year Erdogan took office, 160,169 inquiries were launched for defamation of the president, 35,507 cases were filed and there were 12,881 cases.
