A police officer who had stopped the car of a Justice and Development Party (AKP) lawmaker in 2021 has been fired after a two-year investigation, the Gazete Duvar news website reported.
Muharrem Aydoğan was dismissed for allegedly “violating the privacy” of AKP deputy Zeynep Gül Yılmaz. Police union (Emniyet-Sen) chair Faruk Sezer said the dismissal was illegal and that the officer should not have been the subject of an investigation in the first place.
Two police officer stopped a car in Mersin province two years ago after receiving a notice from the central police station. According to the notice, the driver had disobeyed a previous order to stop and had nearly run over the police officers. All officers in the district were given the license plate number and told to stop the car.
Aydoğan and another police officer stopped Yılmaz’s car and asked for an identity card. They told Yilmaz she had violated a previous order to stop and that they had to notify their chief. Insulting the two police officers, Yilmaz insisted she was an MP and demanded to be released.
A video recording of the incident was widely circulated on social media and had sparked public outrage at the time. The two police officers were suspended for allegedly disseminating the video and were the subjects of a disciplinary investigation.
According to Sezer, the two police officers were carrying out the orders of their superiors and had not violated any laws. “They were just doing their jobs,” he said. “They were investigated for violating the privacy of the MP; however, there is no evidence indicating Muharrem [Aydoğan] disseminated the video. There were several police officers who had that video on their phones. There was no forensic investigation to determine who had posted it on social media.”
Sezer claimed Aydoğan had been dismissed purely for stopping the MP, which was against the law.
