A court in Turkiye has ordered the Victory Party leader Umit Ozdag to be held in custody pending trial on charges of inciting public hatred through social media.
Ozdag was detained on Monday for allegedly insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over comments in which he said “even crusades had not done as much damage to Turkiye as Erdogan has”.
The party said Istanbul’s Chief Public Prosecutor’s office released Ozdag from custody on charges of insulting the president but subsequently ordered his arrest on charges of “inciting hatred and hostility among the public”.
Prosecutors presented 11 of Ozdag’s posts on X as evidence against him, the party said. The prosecutor’s office also held Ozdag responsible for riots against Syrian refugees last year in the central Turkish province of Kayseri, during which hundreds of homes and businesses were attacked.
In a post on X, Ozdag said arresting him means arresting the people he represents and those who are opposing the latest developments in the country.
“Workers who had to survive on minimum wage, retirees living below the hunger threshold were arrested! … You can arrest me, but you cannot silence me without killing me!”
Ozdag, a 63-year-old former academic, is an outspoken critic of Turkiye’s refugee policies and has called for the repatriation of millions of Syrian refugees.
Ozgur Ozel, the leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), protested against the arrest, saying the decision was a murder of justice, a destruction of both democracy and judicial independence.
Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu also protested against Ozdag’s arrest and said this amounts to an intervention of politics in the judiciary.
