A journalist has been arrested in Turkey for allegedly insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Sedef Kabas was taken to a prison in Istanbul today, her lawyer Ugur Poyras told the German Press Agency. Accordingly, a court had ordered her arrest for “insulting the President”. Poyras said he would appeal the “unlawful” decision.
“We hope that Turkey can soon return to the rule of law,” said the lawyer. Insulting the President is a criminal offense in Turkey carrying a prison sentence of up to four years and eight months.
“When an Ox Goes into a Palace”
The day before, in a TV show on Tele 1, the journalist had criticized the government for cracking down on critics and for polarizing society. “When an ox goes into a palace, it does not become a king, but the palace becomes a stable,” Kabas later quoted a proverb on Twitter, without naming a person or a place. Members of the cabinet and Erdogan spokesman Fahrettin Altun described them as “immoral” and “irresponsible”.
The Turkish media regulator RTUK, meanwhile, launched a separate investigation into the broadcaster Tele 1 for “unacceptable statements once morest our president,” as its chairman, Ebubekir Sahin, announced on Twitter late Friday evening. Meanwhile, users on social networks showed their support for Kabas.
Not first arrest
The 52-year-old journalist was briefly arrested in 2014 because of a message on social networks. At the time, she had criticized the public prosecutor’s office for dropping a corruption investigation in which Erdogan was also involved.
