Turkish court jails journalist for citing proverb criticising President Erdogan
Journalist Sedef Kabas has been jailed by a Turkish court, pending trial, on the charge of insulting President Tayyip Erdogan.
Police detained Kabas on Saturday, transferring her to the city’s main courthouse, where a court ruled ruled in favour of her formal arrest.
She is accused of targeting Erdogan with a proverb which she quoted live on Tele1, an opposition-linked TV channel.
Kabas said: “There is a very famous proverb that says that a crowned head becomes wiser. But we see it is not true. A bull does not become king just by entering the palace, but the palace becomes a barn.”
The journalist denies the charge, which carries a prison sentence of between one and four years.
Erdogan’s chief spokesperson Fahrettin Altun criticised Kabas on Twitter.
He said: “I condemn the vulgar insults made against our president and his office.”
However, she was supported by Tele1’s chief editor Merdan Yanardag, who sharply criticised her arrest
“Her detention overnight at 2am because of a proverb is unacceptable,” he wrote on Twitter. “This stance is an attempt to intimidate journalists, the media and society.”
Last October, Europe’s top human rights court called on Turkey to change its legislation after ruling that a man’s detention under the law violated his freedom of expression.
Thousands have been charged and sentenced over the crime of insulting Erdogan in the seven years since he moved from being prime minister to president.
Since 2014, the year Erdogan became president, 160,169 investigations have been launched over insulting the president, with 35,507 cases filed and 12,881 convictions.
Four years ago, Erdogan even attempted to have a German comedian prosecuted in his own country for reciting an offensive poem on television.
The Spectator then launched an offensive poem competition, with a cash prize for the winner for the best insulting poem about Erdogan.
The top prize was awarded to then-Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson who described Erdogan as the “w*nkerer for Ankara” in off-the-cuff remarks.