ISTANBUL (Reuters) – A Turkish court late on Tuesday ordered far-right Victory Party leader Umit Ozdag be held in custody pending trial on charges of inciting public hatred through social media, prompting widespread condemnation from opposition leaders.
Ozdag was detained on Monday for allegedly insulting Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan over comments in which he said “even crusades had not done as much damage to Turkey as Erdogan has”.
In a post on his X account, Ozdag said arresting him means arresting the people he represents, people in need, patriots, and people who are opposing the latest developments in the country.
“Workers who had to survive on minimum wage, retirees living below the hunger threshold were arrested!…You can arrest me, but you cannot silence me without killing me!”
Ozgur Ozel, the leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) protested the arrest of Ozdag, who declared support for CHP’s presidential candidate in 2023 elections.
Ozel said the arrest decision is a murder of justice, a destruction of both democracy and judicial independence.
Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu also protested Ozdag’s arrest and said that this amounts to an intervention of politics in the judiciary.
“The mind that has signed these practices will surely succumb to the will of the people and will leave those seats. This is our promise to our nation,” Imamoglu said in a post on X.
In a news conference following the decision, nationalist opposition Iyi Party leader Musavat Dervisoglu said the ruling party is trying to muzzle opposition parties by threatening, discrediting and intimitading them.
(Reporting by Ezgi Erkoyun; Editing by Ece Toksabay and Michael Perry)
