A Turkish court ordered the arrest of Amit Özdag on charges of public incitement and anti-Syrian riots after his detention on Monday.
A Turkish court has ordered the detention of Victory Party leader Amit Özdag pending trial on charges of inciting public hatred through social media.
Özdag was detained on Monday for insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, saying that “even the Crusades have not harmed Turkey as much as Erdogan”.
The party said that Istanbul’s chief public prosecutor’s office released Ozdag from custody on charges of insulting the president but later ordered his arrest for “inciting hatred and enmity among the people”.
The party said prosecutors presented 11 of Ozdag’s posts on X as evidence against him. The prosecutor’s office also blamed Özdag for riots against Syrian refugees in the central Turkish province of Kayseri last year, during which hundreds of homes and businesses were attacked.
In a post on X, Ozdag said that arresting him means arresting the people he represents and arresting those who oppose the latest developments in the country.
“Workers who had to survive on minimum wages, retirees living below the hunger threshold were arrested! You can arrest me, but you can’t silence me without killing me!”
Özdag, a 63-year-old former academic, is a vocal critic of Turkey’s refugee policies and has called for the repatriation of millions of Syrian refugees.
The leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), Ozgur Ozil, protested against the arrest, saying that the decision was a murder of justice, a destruction of both democracy and judicial independence.
Istanbul Mayor Akram Imamoglu also protested Özdag’s arrest, saying it amounted to political interference in the judiciary.
