Journalist Arrested For Insulting Turkish President

A Turkish court has ordered journalist Sedef Kabas to be jailed pending trial on a charge of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

This comes under a law that has seen tens of thousands charged and sentenced over the crime of insulting the president.

According to Aljazeera, the country’s Police detained Kabas on Saturday morning and took her to Istanbul’s main police station before transferring her to the city’s main court.

The alleged insult was in the form of a palace-related proverb that Kabas expressed both on an opposition television channel and on her Twitter account.

She had tweeted; “When the ox climbs to the palace, he does not become a king, but the palace becomes a barn."

And reacting to the incident, Fahrettin Altun, the head of Turkey’s communications department, denounced the statement as he said; “The honour of the presidency’s office is the honour of our country."

"I condemn the vulgar insults made against our president and his office."

Abdulhamit Gul, Turkey’s justice minister, also said on Twitter that; "Kabas will get what she deserves for her unlawful words."

Kabas lawyer, Ugur Poyraz has said he will appeal the unlawful decision as he added that; "We hope Turkey can return to rule of law soon."

The law on insulting the president carries a jail sentence of between one and four years.

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.