Turkish prosecutors have indicted a former intelligence chief on accusations of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in his criticism of Erdoğan’s Gaza policy on social media, Turkish Minute reported.
Sabri Uzun, the former head of the National Security Directorate’s intelligence department in Ankara, is facing a prison sentence of up to seven years on charges of insulting the president and insulting the Turkish nation.
The indictment, drafted by the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, has been accepted by a court in İstanbul.
The investigation into Uzun was launched in early January on accusations that he “posted insulting content against President Erdoğan on his social media account.”
The social media post in question was one that Uzun tweeted on X on New Year’s Day about a pro-Palestinian rally held in İstanbul that day with the attendance hundreds of thousands of people, including Erdoğan’s family members.
Erdoğan’s younger son, Bilal, delivered a speech at the rally in which he talked about a “victory” in Gaza against Israel and also referred to the ouster of Syrian President Bashar Assad by rebel forces days earlier.
“Muslims in Syria were determined and patient, and they achieved victory. After Syria, Gaza will emerge victorious from the siege,” Bilal Erdoğan said.
“Gaza is not alone, Palestine is not alone, Syria is not alone. We exist, İstanbul exists, Turkey exists,” he added, expressing Turkey’s solidarity with Gaza and Syria.
Uzun took to X to express his skepticism over Turkey’s solidarity with Gaza amid widespread allegations about the Turkish government’s ongoing trade with Israel despite an embargo announced in May 2024.
“The father has sent fuel and steel to Israel, he has been applauded. The son has protested Israel; he has been applauded. Such a nation … deserves a sultan’s rule. This is what an uneducated society looks like,” Uzun tweeted, in reference to Erdoğan and his son Bilal.
According to the indictment, Uzun admitted in his testimony that he wrote the tweet in question, adding that his remarks referred to shipments sent from ports in Turkey to Israel and that the shipments were handled by private companies operating both domestically and internationally.
He denied targeting Erdoğan and said he did not know who owned the companies involved. He described his posts as a general assessment of the situation rather than an attack on the president.
Thousands of people in Turkey are investigated, prosecuted and convicted on charges of insulting the president on the basis of the controversial Article 299 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK). The crime carries up to four years in prison, a sentence that can be increased if the act was committed using the mass media.
Critics accuse Erdoğan, one of the fiercest critics of Israeli actions in Gaza, of hypocrisy for allegedly facilitating crude oil shipments to Israel despite Turkey’s public stance against Israeli military action in Gaza.
Reports have revealed continued shipments of crude oil from Turkey’s Ceyhan port to Israel, despite the trade embargo. Investigations by advocacy groups such as Stop Fueling Genocide have tracked oil tankers reportedly rerouting shipments to Israel through intermediary destinations.
Critics argue that Erdoğan’s government is contradicting its pro-Palestinian rhetoric with policies that facilitate Israel’s military operations in Gaza.
