In Turkey, the Court of Cassation approved on Thursday the sentence of four years and 11 months in prison of a leading opponent. Canan Kaftancioglu, representative of the main opposition party, the CHP, for the city of Istanbul, should however benefit from a conditional release measure. His supporters accuse the government of taking revenge for the defeat in the 2019 municipal elections, of which Canan Kaftancioglu had been one of the architects.
With our correspondent in Istanbul, Anne Andlauer
When the decision was announced, hundreds of people gathered in Istanbul in front of the headquarters of the CHP, the Republican People’s Party, to support Canan Kaftancioglu, a figure of this party and of the opposition. A few hours earlier, the Court of Cassation had found her guilty of “insulting the president”, ” insulting a public servant in the performance of his duties ” and “ public denigration of the state of the Republic of Turkey “.
A key role in the victory of the opposition in Istanbul
While these charges all relate to messages posted on Twitter between 2012 and 2016, Canan Kaftancioglu’s legal troubles only began after the opposition won the 2019 municipal elections in Istanbul. Trained forensic doctor, local representative of the CHP, this 50-year-old woman played a key role in the victory of Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, supported at the time by a broad coalition of opponents, from ultranationalists to pro-Kurds.
Supporters of Canan Kaftancioglu do not doubt it: this victory, which was a humiliation for President Erdogan, made her a target. His sentence is also accompanied by a ban on political life.
This court decision confirms also that the power has no intention of loosening the grip on the opposition one year from the elections.
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