Turkey Opens Over 2,600 Criminal Cases for Insulting President
19:29 17.03.2017(updated 19:35 17.03.2017)
A total of 2,673 criminal cases were filed over six months on charges of insulting Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to a report for the Human Rights Joint Platform (IHOP) on Friday.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Of those individuals with cases filed against them, 280 suspects were acquitted, according to the Turkish Minute, citing the report.
According to the report, 3,134 individuals have been put on trial on charges of insulting the president since 1993, of which 1,953 were filed in 2015.
In 2016, a number of lawsuits were filed in Turkey against journalists, artists, students, and, notably, the head of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), Kemal Kilicdaroglu and Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtas, on allegations of anti-Erdogan remarks.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad Hussein, the European Union and a group of press freedom organizations expressed concerns over Ankara's perceived crackdown on freedom of expression.
Under Turkish law, those found guilty of insulting the president may be fined or imprisoned for up to four years.
© Sputnik
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