A Turkish court has accepted the indictment of a prominent main opposition figure, seeking up to four years, eight months in prison over a social media post prosecutors say insulted President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
According to the Birgün daily, the Istanbul 53rd Criminal Court of First Instance approved the indictment of Canan Kaftancıoğlu, a former Istanbul provincial chair of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), and set the first hearing for May 21.
Prosecutors accuse Kaftancıoğlu of violating Turkey’s controversial law on insulting the president.
The case stems from an exchange on X in May 2025, when Erdoğan said those who misuse public resources would be held accountable under the rule of law. His comments referred to a series of investigations and legal actions targeting CHP-run municipalities.
Quoting Erdoğan’s post, Kaftancıoğlu suggested the allegation applied to the government itself, writing: “The days when those who exploit public resources will be held accountable are near.”
She gave a statement to police in October as part of the investigation, which later resulted in the indictment.The CHP made major gains in the March 2024 local elections, taking control of key municipalities across the country. Since October 2024 prosecutors have opened a series of corruption and misconduct investigations into CHP-run municipalities, in what the party says is an effort to weaken the opposition, which won a nationwide plurality in those elections.
In March 2025 İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, the party’s top potential challenger to President Erdoğan, was also arrested as part of the same crackdown and remains in jail. The main court case accusing him of corruption began last month and is ongoing.
The case is the latest involving Kaftancıoğlu, who remains active in opposition politics but no longer holds an official party position after a court upheld her conviction in a 2022 trial and imposed a political ban.
Thousands of people are investigated, prosecuted or convicted each year in Turkey for allegedly insulting the president. Two hundred seven minors were convicted in Turkey in 2025 on charges of insulting President Erdoğan or the government.
