President and Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has filed 38,581 lawsuits for “insulting the president” between 2014 and 2020, according to a report by an opposition deputy.
MP Gülizar Biçer Karaca of the Republican People's Party (CHP) published a report on the cases filed for "insulting the President." According to the report, a total of 38,581 citizens were sued for allegedly insulting the president from 2014, when Recep Tayyip Erdogan was elected president, to 2020.
LAWSUITS INCREASED DURING ERDOĞAN’S PERIOD
The report reveals that between 1994 and 2014, 1,138 people were prosecuted for insulting the president, but this figure increased to 38,581 between 2014 and 2020.
Erdoğan's predecessor Abdullah Gül, who was also a member of the AKP, filed 848 cases in seven years, marking a 420 percent increase from Ahmet Necdet Sezer's term in office.
During Erdoğan's term, the number of cases filed increased by 2,052 percent.
In the last three years,
2,775 of the 6,270 people sued were convicted in 2018
4,291 of the 13,990 people sued were convicted in 2019
3,665 of the 9,773 people sued were convicted in 2020.
Kenan Evren, the leader of the 1980 military coup who served as the president between 1980 and 1989, had sued 340 people for insulting the president.
Evren's successors, Turgut Özal, Süleyman Demirel and Ahmet Necdet Sezer had filed 207, 163 and 158 cases, respectively.
