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Umit Ozdag, the leader of Turkey's anti-immigrant Victory Party,
was detained by police on Monday as part of an investigation
into allegations that he insulted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
in a speech he delivered a day earlier.
The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s office, however, 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,” the party said.
Prosecutors presented 11 of the politician’s posts on the social
platform X as evidence against him, the party said. The
prosecutor’s office also held Ozdag responsible for anti-Syrian
refugee rioting that erupted in the central Turkish province of
Kayseri last year, during which hundreds of homes and businesses
were attacked.
Ekrem Imamoglu, the popular mayor of Istanbul who is seen as a
possible candidate to challenge Erdogan in the next elections,
criticized Ozdag’s arrest, saying on X that “Everyone knows that
this is political meddling in the judiciary."
Imamoglu, who is a member of Turkey's main opposition party, was
convicted of insulting members of Turkey’s electoral board in
2022 and faces a two-year ban from politics if his conviction is
upheld by a court of appeals.
Ozdag, a 63-year-old former academic, is an outspoken critic of
Turkey’s refugee policies and has called for the repatriation of
millions of Syrian refugees.
The politician was being taken to Silivri prison on the
outskirts of Istanbul, according to his party.
Mehmet Ali Sehirlioglu, the party’s spokesman, would temporarily
assume leadership of the Victory Party.
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