Turkish authorities have arrested the cafeteria manager of the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper for insulting the president after he said he would not serve tea to Recep Tayyip Erdogan, one of the manager’s lawyers told Reuters on Monday.
Senol Buran, who runs the cafeteria at the Istanbul office of Cumhuriyet, was taken into custody after police raided his home late on Saturday, lawyer Ozgur Urfa said. The newspaper is among the few still critical of the government.
Insulting the president is a crime punishable by up to four years in prison in Turkey.
Lawyers for Erdogan, who has dominated Turkish politics for more than a decade, have filed more than 1,800 cases against people, including cartoonists, a former Miss Turkey winner and schoolchildren on accusations of insulting him.
Following a failed coup in July, Erdogan said he would drop the outstanding suits, in a one-off gesture of national unity. Buran is jailed pending trial and the court date, if any, has not yet been announced. The Justice Ministry would need to approve the launch of a court case.
He was detained after a police officer providing security for the newspaper said he heard him use a derogatory term to describe Erdogan and say he would refuse to serve the president tea if he ever visited the cafeteria, his lawyer said.
According to court documents obtained by Reuters, Buran has denied using an insulting term, while confirming that he had said he would refuse to serve the president tea.
