An 80-year old man was taken into police custody and interrogated on the accusation of insulting President Erdoğan of Turkey because he “liked” some posts shared on Facebook, the Deputy Chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Muharrem Erkek announced on Saturday.
The man was interrogated as a suspect on April 15, 2020 in a police station in Ankara at a time when a Coronavirus pandemic-prompted curfew for 65-year of age and older was still in force, an affidavit of the octogenarian shared by Erkek on his twitter account shows.
The octogenarian who is forbidden to leave home due to the coronavirus measures in effect, was taken to police custody on 15 April and interrogated by the police over his “likes” on his Facebook account.
The suspect, a retired public employee whose name was not disclosed, said, in defense, that he was born in 1940 and had no intention of insulting state superiors, he liked the impugned posts without reading their content, or his hand accidentally touched on the phone screen because of his advanced age and poor sight, according to his affidavit.
“I retired in 1994 and live with my daughter. I was born in 1940 and am old. Since I got bored at home, my daughter uploaded Facebook to her phone and gave it to me. I used this Facebook account to see pictures of my relatives and to while away the time.
I liked the posts on the account to help [account holders] gain followers and to make them happy without reading the contents of the posts. Also, some of them were [probably] marked as ‘liked’ when my hand touched unintentionally on the phone screen. I am old and have cataract in my eye,” the man said.
“Since the person named in the document may be a distant relative of my deceased wife, I liked his posts hoping he would call me, but I did not pay attention to the contents of the posts and pages I liked. I was not even reading them,” the man explained.
The octogenarian apologized for the incident. “I do not know any of the people mentioned in this document, but I probably liked them so that their followers increase. With these ‘likes’ I did not intent to humiliate my state superiors. As a matter of fact, I have not even read these writings and looked at the images attached to them. I apologize from my state superiors if they contain any insult to them,” the man added.
“I am from Çayeli district of Rize province. The president is my fellow countryman. Our villages are across each other. I worked for the state for 32 years and then retired. I cannot think of any insult to my fellow countryman, the President and the state superiors. There is a misunderstanding on this issue. I have no intention of insulting and humiliating state superiors. I apologize with the sincerest feelings and kiss all their hands if there is a misunderstanding,” the old man apologized.
Commenting on the incident the CHP Deputy Chair Erkek noted on his twitter account: “An 80-year old citizen born in 1940. He is forbidden to go outside. He was taken to police station and interrogated because of his likes on his Facebook account. It doesn’t matter whether he contracts with COVID-19 virus or is in danger because of his age. All that matters is one man’s pleasure.”
A second tweet by Erkek revealed that the old man’s daughter was also taken into the police custody and interrogated along with him on the same grounds. The woman confirmed his father’s statement, her affidavit shows.
Expressions critical of the government are frequently met with criminal charges in Turkey alleging affiliation with terrorist groups or terrorism. According to a US State Department Report, during the first 11 months of 2019, “the government investigated more than 36,000 individuals and filed criminal cases against more than 6,000 people related to accusations they insulted the president or the state.” The number includes many ordinary citizens, politicians and journalists as well as minors who were prosecuted over their social media posts.
This incident that took place just one day after the enactment of an early parole bill aimed at reducing one third of inmate population of the country’s overcrowded prisons vis-à-vis the threat posed by the coronavirus pandemic raging across the country bears testimony once again to the forceful stance by Turkish authorities against the dissidents.
The bill provided basically early parole and house arrest possibilities for a broad range of offenders, yet excluded some others, political prisoners being first and foremost. Thus, a broad range of dissidents among whom tens of thousands of journalists, lawyers, politicians, academics, human right defenders and civil servants indicted or convicted under the country’s controversial and broadly interpreted anti-terrorism laws were left out in the cold.
This fact elicited strong criticism from both the international community and opposition groups.
“[T]he Turkish ruling parties have decided to deliberately expose the lives of journalists, human rights defenders and those whom they deem to be political opponents to the risk of the deadly disease COVID 19,” EU parliamentarians said on 15 April in a joint statement.
Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, a deputy of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and a prominent human rights defender, described the law as ‘discriminatory’ and criticized the exclusion of political prisoners in his speech at the Turkish parliament on the day of the voting of the bill, accusing the government of releasing ordinary prisoners to make room for new dissidents.”
The President Erdoğan has always been a staunch proponent of the idea that state can only pardon those who committed crimes against it and not against other citizens. Yet, his track record sits uneasily with this credo.
“Our basic principle [on amnesty] is this: if a crime is committed against the state, [only then] the state can be entitled to pardon this crime. But if it is committed against individuals, the state is not entitled to amnesty. The sole authority that can forgive these crimes is the victimized individuals themselves. We cannot take over that authority to ourselves as state,” Erdoğan stated on 23 September 2018 on an amnesty proposal by his supporter ultranationalist Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).
He has indeed enacted in his almost twenty-year-long rule two amnesties, both of which, as fate would have it, excluded political prisoners from their scopes. The first of them which was enacted right after a coup attempt on 15th of July 2016, even intended to make room for tens of thousands of dissidents in prisons.
As a matter of fact, Erdoğan has not always been so insensitive to political prisoners when it comes to his support base. In a recent case the President Erdoğan granted an amnesty to Ahmet Turan Kılıç, age 86, on health and age grounds by means of a presidential decree. Kılıç had been sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment on the accusation of forcefully overthrowing the constitutional order over his involvement in Sivas Massacre. The Sivas massacre refers to the events of July 2, 1993 at the Hotel Madimak in Sivas, a middle Anatolian province, which resulted in the killing of 37 people, mostly Alevi intellectuals, musicians and artists. The victims, who had gathered in the hotel for a festival in memory of Pir Sultan Abdal, a prominent Alevi poet and folk hero, were killed when mostly conservative zealots, charging the group with blasphemy, set fire to the hotel where the Alevi group had assembled.
Another elderly who was recently arrested over his links to a faith-based movement critical of the Erdoğan government can never hope for such an amnesty be it general or individual. Yusuf Pekmezci, 81, who suffers from Alzheimer, high blood pressure and osteoporosis was arrested in the Turkish province of İzmir due to his links to the Gülen movement, led by a US-based cleric named Fethullah Gülen. Pekmezci, who worked as a merchant in İzmir for years, is known for his philanthropy, which included giving scholarships to students in need and opening dormitories for students, was in hiding for three years due to a widespread crackdown launched by the Turkish government on the followers of the movement, labeled by the Turkish government as a “terrorist organization.”
The post 80-year old man interrogated for insulting Turkish President due to his Facebook likes appeared first on Stockholm Center for Freedom.
from Stockholm Center for Freedom https://stockholmcf.org/80-year-old-man-interrogated-for-insulting-turkish-president-due-to-his-facebook-likes/
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