ISTANBUL
A Turkish prosecutor has launched an investigation into Ekrem Dumanli, columnist and editor-in-chief of the Zaman newspaper, on Friday, judicial sources said on Friday.
The prosecution office in Istanbul’s Bakirkoy district opened an investigation to determine whether Dumanli had “insulted and threatened” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a televised interview on Kanalturk last Tuesday.
His comments came after police in the country's capital Ankara raided Koza Ipek Holding, a conglomerate with interests in the media, energy, construction and mining. The holding owns Kanalturk television.
Certain Turkish dailies interpreted Dumanli's comments as a threat to the current president.
Dumanli rejected such interpretation on his official Twitter account on Thursday saying he was merely giving a historical account of the end of military rule in Turkey during the eighties.
"I said something about the 12 September [1980] coup d'etat. They claimed that 'I targeted their leader'," he tweeted.
“Either he leaves like a decent person or he would be forced to leave. What will happen when it all becomes too much for [people's] conscience. He will leave my friend," he said during the interview according to the daily Zaman.
Dumanli is expected to give testimony to the prosecution office in the days to come.
Last December, he was held in custody for allegedly being affiliated with what the government describes as the "parallel state", a purported group of bureaucrats embedded in the country's institutions, including the judiciary and the police.
He was released on conditional probation.
