{"id":647285,"date":"2019-06-28T18:31:30","date_gmt":"2019-06-28T18:31:30","guid":{"rendered":"
\"Canan<\/div>

Hundreds gathered at Istanbul\u2019s m"},"modified":"2019-06-28T18:31:30","modified_gmt":"2019-06-28T18:31:30","slug":"turkey-politician-faces-17-years-for-criticising-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/06\/28\/turkey-politician-faces-17-years-for-criticising-government\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey politician faces 17 years for criticising government"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"Canan<\/div>\n

Hundreds gathered at Istanbul\u2019s main court on Friday to support an opposition politician who faces 17 years in prison for a series of tweets criticising the government.<\/p>\n

Canan Kaftancioglu, who heads the secular Republican People\u2019s Party (CHP)\u2019s Istanbul branch, is accused of \u201cinsulting\u201d President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Turkish state in tweets posted between 2012 and 2017.<\/p>\n

She played a key role in the victory of the newly elected Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu this week \u2014 the first time the CHP has run the city in 25 years.<\/p>\n

Imamoglu told reporters the case against Kaftancioglu was one of \u201cpolitical interference\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is an attempt to restrict rights and freedoms. I will always stand by her,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Supporters outside the court chanted \u201cDown with fascism\u201d and held signs reading \u201cWe are thirsty for justice\u201d.<\/p>\n

Kaftancioglu\u2019s tweets include an insult directed at Erdogan, and criticism of the death of a 14-year-old boy who was hit by a tear gas grenade during the mass \u201cGezi Park\u201d protests of 2013.<\/p>\n

She is also accused of \u201cterrorist propaganda\u201d for quoting a member of the outlawed Kurdistan Worker\u2019s Party (PKK), which has been fighting a bloody insurgency against the state since 1983.<\/p>\n

Her supporters say another tweet, in which she appeared to deny the Armenian genocide, was fake and had been created to smear her.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis trial, as everyone knows, is a political trial,\u201d said a lawyer for the CHP outside the court.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are once again before the court for a case that is unjust, outside of the law and without any foundation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Imamoglu\u2019s landslide victory this week marked the first significant defeat for Erdogan since he took power in 2003.<\/p>\n

There was little progress in the trial itself on Friday, with the case quickly adjourned until July 18.<\/p>\n

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