Turkey: a lawyer in police custody for attacking sharia law on the networks
A famous lawyer was taken into custody on Monday after attacking Sharia law on social media. Feyza Altun, a lawyer who vehemently defends secularism under attack in President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Turkey, risks a prison sentence if the investigation against her leads to a trial.
Turkish police officers in Istanbul, in 2021 (illustrative image) © AFP - OZAN KOSE
By: RFI Follow
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With our correspondent in Istanbul,
Anne Andlauer
It only took two words on the social network
The Beykoz public prosecutor's office in Istanbul took action to open an investigation on the basis of article 216 of the Turkish Penal Code. Increasingly often invoked, it punishes those who “
denigrate or incite hatred or hostility
”. Depending on the qualification chosen, the penalty incurred can be up to three years in prison.
On social networks, detractors and defenders of the lawyer attack each other by using the hashtags “
prison for Feyza Altun
” or, conversely, “
Feyza Altun is not alone
”. She herself published a message in which she maintains her remarks by explaining that Turkey is a secular state and that demanding sharia “is a crime and a threat to the constitutional order”.
At the beginning of February, President Erdogan attacked the “
enemies of Sharia
” in a speech, which he defined as “
all the rules of life of Islam
”. While ensuring that everyone was free to believe or not, the Turkish leader estimated that “
hostility to Sharia law is nothing other than hostility towards religion itself.
»
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