Turkish court has issued eight arrest warrants, including one targeting a former swimming athlete who also competed in the Olympics, for comments made on Twitter against the president. Recep Tayyip Erdoganafter the last tested positive for coronavirus at the weekend.
The 67-year-old Turkish president announced on Saturday that he and his wife had shown a “light” form of Covid-19 and that he would work from his home in the coming days. Since then, he has posted many messages on Twitter thanking foreign officials and heads of government – including the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis – for the wishes sent to him for a speedy recovery.
But amid a wave of wishes, authorities on Saturday identified an account allegedly belonging to the swimmer Deria Bigikundzu, who specializes in butterfly and freestyle and has participated six times in the Olympic Games. The 45-year-old athlete wrote in his post that he cooks a huge amount halvaa sweet that is traditionally shared at funerals, according to AFP.
Four arrests
The Istanbul prosecutor’s office announced on Monday that it had issued an arrest warrant against Biguncu as part of an investigation into “criminal messages on social networking sites»For the president’s illness.
In total, they were issued eight warrants and so far have been done four arrests.
Ankara prosecutors have also launched an investigation into “insult to the president” and “ridicule of religious values“On the occasion of such messages, it is retransmitted by APE BPE.
More than 3,600 convictions for “insulting the president” since 2014
The Turkish authorities have started 160,000 President’s insults have been investigated since Erdogan became president in 2014. So far, courts have ruled 3,625 convictions, according to the same sources.
In late January, a journalist, the Sedef Kampas, was arrested at her home in Istanbul for making comments on a TV show that were considered insulting to the president. She then posted the same comments on her Twitter account.
A few days later, Erdogan warned that “this offense will not go unpunished” why “It is our duty to protect the respect of the office, of the presidency” and “this has nothing to do with freedom of expression».
Source: News Beast
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