Turkish prosecutors are seeking a prison sentence of up to three years for pro-government journalist Rasim Ozan Kütahyalı for claiming that the government would soon take control of the main opposition party, the DHA news agency reported.
Kütahyalı made the claims in a series of posts on X last week alleging that a court would cancel the results of the Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) 38th general congress, held in November 2023, at which Özgür Özel defeated long-time CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.
An investigation into alleged irregularities at the CHP’s 2023 congress is still ongoing.
Citing “a security bureaucrat friend” who allegedly informed him of a planned police deployment from İstanbul to Ankara ahead of pre-dawn operations targeting two CHP-run municipalities, Kütahyalı also claimed a government-appointed trustee would take over the party’s administration and suggested that police raids would be carried out in the CHP-controlled Keçiören and Etimesgut districts of Ankara.
Following the claims, the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation into the journalist for “publicly disseminating misleading information,” a crime under Article 217 of the Turkish Penal Code. He was briefly detained and released under judicial supervision.
DHA reported that the journalist faces between one and three years in prison if convicted, according to an indictment recently drafted by the prosecutor’s office.
Following a public backlash, Kütahyalı walked back...
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