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Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: Cabinet members called the criticism 'immoral' and 'irresponsible'
Photo: FLORION GOGA / REUTERS
A journalist has been arrested in Turkey for allegedly insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Sedef Kabas was taken to a prison in Istanbul on Saturday, 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.
Kabas was arrested at a hotel in Istanbul on Saturday morning and taken to court after the Attorney General opened an investigation into her for allegedly insulting the President.
Insulting the President is a criminal offense in Turkey carrying a prison sentence of up to four years and eight months.
»The palace becomes a stable«
In a TV show on Tele 1 on Friday, the journalist criticized the government for cracking down on critics and for polarizing society.
"When an ox goes into a palace, it doesn't 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 against our president," as its chairman, Ebubekir Sahin, announced on Twitter late Friday evening.
Meanwhile, users on social media showed their support for Kabas.
The 52-year-old journalist was briefly detained in 2014 for a message on social media.
At the time, she had criticized the public prosecutor's office for dropping a corruption investigation in which Erdoğan was also involved.
ime/dpa