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Turkish opposition leader fined over 17,000 dollars for insulting Erdogan

The leader of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), Kemal Kilicdaroglu, addresses his supporters at the party’s headquarters in the capital, Ankara, on June 11, 2016. ©AFP

A court in Turkey has ordered the leader of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) to pay thousands of US dollars in compensation to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for calling him a “sham dictator.”

The civil court in the capital city of Ankara ruled on Thursday that Kemal Kilicdaroglu should pay 50,000 Turkish liras ($17,200) over remarks made at the CHP’S 35th general meeting on January 16, and in a parliamentary group meeting three days later. The lawyer of the 67-year-old politician dismissed the allegation.

Erdogan's lawyer argued that Kilicdaroglu's comment constituted “extraordinarily weighty insults” aimed at sullying the image of his client.

Under Article 299 of the Turkish Penal Code, it is a criminal offense to insult the president, and those found guilty will be sentenced to between one and four years in prison.

On May 3, the 2006 Nobel Prize laureate in literature, Orhan Pamuk, accused Ankara of bringing charges of insulting Erdogan against people in an attempt to suppress dissent and frighten opponents.

He made the remarks in Istanbul after he attended the trial of Turkish writer, columnist and academic Murat Belge.

Pamuk expressed dismay over the increasing number of insult cases, saying, “This has nothing to do with insulting the president. This is only about silencing political opposition. This is about intimidating people and scaring the country so nobody would criticize the government.”

“I have been writing for 40 years. I am fed up with appearing at the gates of courts, defending my friends and my own cases,” the distinguished Turkish author said.

Nearly 2,000 people, including ordinary citizens, students, cartoonists and journalists, have been prosecuted for insulting Erdogan since he was sworn in as president in August 2014.


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