A Turkish court on Monday placed Nurullah Efe Ankut, leader of the People’s Liberation Party (HKP), under house arrest for allegedly insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkish media reported.
Ankut, 79, was detained on Sunday night after posting on X that Erdoğan and his inner circle were involved in a $1.4 billion oil smuggling scheme from Iraq.
Following his testimony to the prosecutor, the case was referred to a criminal magistrate of peace, who ordered house arrest on charges of “publicly insulting the president.”
The HKP, a left-wing populist and anti-imperialist political party, has long been a vocal critic of Erdoğan. Ankut’s arrest marks the latest in a series of prosecutions targeting opposition figures in Turkey.
Turkey frequently invokes a law criminalizing “insulting the president” (Article 299 of the Turkish Penal Code) to silence dissent. Thousands of journalists, academics, politicians and activists have faced investigations, prosecution and prison sentences under the broadly defined and widely criticized provision. Human rights organizations have condemned its use as a tool to stifle dissent and restrict freedom of expression.
Ankut has previously faced legal retaliation for his activism. In 2014, following revelations that trucks operated by Turkish intelligence agency MİT had been carrying weapons into Syria, the HKP filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague accusing Erdoğan and senior officials including then-foreign minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, then-interior Minister Efkan Ala and then-intelligence chief Hakan Fidan of war crimes.
In response Turkish prosecutors charged Ankut with insulting the president and other officials, resulting in a conviction and a suspended one-and-a half-year sentence.
On July 28 Turkey’s Supreme Court of Appeals’ chief prosecutor announced that Ankut’s party membership and leadership position had been terminated. HKP lawyers appealed the decision, calling it “null and void” since the high court lacks the authority to intervene in the composition of political parties.
