Turkish father, daughter file complaints against each other over insulting Erdogan
A father and daughter in the Turkish capital of Ankara have filed criminal complaints against one another for insulting the country's president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Ahvalnews reported.
The Ankara father, M.C., was first to file a complaint with a prosecutor’s office on Jan. 14, citing wording used by his daughter in an email exchange, it said. His daughter, A.T.C., then countered the claim, accusing her father of insulting Erdoğan in a complaint she filed with a prosecutor’s office few days later.
"My father and I were already on bad terms. What I wrote to him was said in a moment of anger. My father is opposed to the [ruling Justice and Development Party] AKP… He has, in the past, expressed his hatred for Erdogan and said things that should not be uttered. He would frequently insult Erdoğan in family gatherings...." he daughter said in her complaint.
The prosecutor’s office has dismissed the complaint against the father. Turkish judicial authorities on Monday also demoted a judge after he acquitted a defendant charged with insulting the president.
It is noted that the crime of insulting the president carries a sentence of between one and four years. The number of prosecutions under the law has risen dramatically from 132 when Erdogan became president in 2014, to more than 6,000 in 2017, according to Human Rights Watch.