A Turkish court on Friday sentenced a prominent opposition official to nine years and eight months in prison over several crimes including insulting the president and spreading terrorist propaganda, a lawmaker from the main opposition party said.
The Republican People's Party (CHP) said Canan Kaftancioglu, the head of its leadership in Istanbul, would not immediately go to jail pending the appeals process. The indictment against Kaftancioglu cited several tweets she shared between 2012 and 2017.
Kaftancioglu has derided the trial as political. In March the CHP won Ankara and Istanbul mayors’ offices in local elections in a setback for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party.
Erdogan has received backlash from human rights groups who criticize the arrests of those who oppose him.
In June Turkey ordered the arrest of 128 military personnel over alleged links to the network accused by Ankara of orchestrating an attempted coup in 2016.
Rights groups claim Erdogan used the failed coup as a pretext to quash dissent.
- With Reuters
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