Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey's state-run news agency says President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has filed complaints against the main opposition party leader and 72 legislators accusing them of insults for posting and sharing a cartoon on social media that depicts him as a variety of different animals.
Anadolu Agency said complaints were filed Wednesday against Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who posted the cartoon on Twitter, and other officials who shared it in support of four university students arrested for holding up a poster of the same caricature during their graduation ceremony.
Insulting the president is a crime punishable by up to four years in prison in Turkey.
Erdogan filed close to 2,000 lawsuits against people for alleged insults, dropping many following a failed military coup in 2016 as a goodwill gesture, but filing many others since.
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
