Only in Turkey does a ‘follow’ lead you to prison

In dictatorial regimes, you must not commit an offense so as not to be thrown in prison, but you may face serious charges and languish in prison for years on flimsy charges. These regimes compete with each other to record the strangest and rarest cases.

Did you ever expect a “follow” of a sports figure to go to jail? This is the nature of charges you may face inside Turkey under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has sought since the fictional coup in July 2016 to rule alone and consecrate all powers in his hands, creating a terrible dictator in the region.

Crazy accusations

According to Swedish-based Nordic Monitor on October 23, a leaked official document indicates that a former official of the Turkish Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BRSA), Murat Güçlü, was arrested after he followed Turkish professional NBA basketball player Enes Kanter and read two stories about the player on his personal computer.

On August 24, 2016, security forces arrested the former BRSA official and charged him with supporting terrorist organizations and disseminating their ideas and views via social media networks.

The Istanbul court considered that following the basketball player, who described Erdogan as “Hitler of the modern age,” on Twitter is a sign of belonging to and supporting terrorist organizations that oppose the state.

Flimsy charges and actual reasons

Güçlü has been under the attention of the Turkish regime for years, specifically in 2013 when he revealed in a graft investigation that members of the Erdogan family, ministers and prominent figures in the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) received large bribes.

It is reported that the director of the Turkish Halkbank in Istanbul, Iranian Reza Zarrab, gave bribes to members of the Turkish regime in order to open the way for the bank to evade and violate the US sanctions imposed on Iran’s mullah regime, prompting the Turkish regime to overthrow Güçlü and his staff from office and then arrest them for attempting to overthrow the government, before being released for the first time and then arrested again in 2016.

Canter is the aim

Turkish basketball player Enes Kanter, who plays for the Boston Celtics in the NBA, is one of Erdogan’s most prominent opponents, especially since he is internationally renowned.

In January 2019, a Turkish court charged him with membership in a terrorist organization for his strong links to Turkish preacher Fethullah Gulen. Interpol was asked to arrest him and issue a red notice against him, two years after his passport was revoked in 2017, on charges of allegedly participating in the coup in Turkey.