A woman who was arrested after criticizing President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during a vox pop in İzmir now faces potential imprisonment. The indictment against her has been accepted by the court, setting the stage for her trial on Sep 3.
Dilruba Y. was arrested on Aug 12 due to her remarks about the recent ban on Instagram in the interview. "If you abolish the parliamentary system and hand over the entire Republic of Turkey to a single person in the 21st century, he will treat it like his father's farm,” she had said. Turkey imposed a temporary ban on Instagram earlier this month following the platform’s restriction of messages from Turkish government officials honoring the assassinated Palestinian leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Following the interview, Dilruba Y. was detained and subsequently remanded in custody at the Şakran Women's Closed Prison in İzmir.
İzmir woman arrested after criticizing Erdoğan over Instagram ban during vox pop
The İzmir Public Prosecutor's Office has charged her with "inciting hatred and enmity among the public," a crime that carries a potential sentence of one to three years in prison, and “insulting the president.”
‘No reason for arrest’
Her lawyer, Hüseyin Yıldız, criticized the speed at which the indictment was prepared, claiming it was rushed by a deputy chief prosecutor. Yıldız also questioned the rationale for her continued arrest, pointing out that there is no risk of her fleeing or tampering with evidence. “There is no reason for her to remain in detention,” Yıldız said, calling for her immediate release.
Tuncay Özkan, a deputy from the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), visited Dilruba Y. in prison on Aug 14. After the visit, Özkan described her as “the latest victim of the suppression of free speech in Turkey.”
During their meeting, Dilruba Y. remained defiant, stating that her imprisonment had only strengthened her resolve. “They can’t scare me, they can’t intimidate me,” she said, as quoted by Özkan. (VK)