Actor Mehmet Aslan, who ran for Parliament from the ranks of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) in the June 2015 general elections but failed to win election, has been released after a brief detention on charges of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Aslan was detained on Tuesday as part of an investigation conducted by the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office and released after the prosecutor was given an explanation about the tweets. Aslan claimed that it was his driver who sent the tweets from his account.
In the wake of the increasing number of terrorist attacks in Turkey, Aslan recently shared a message from his Twitter account, which said: “Tayyip, you have nowhere to go. You brought those Arab terrorists among us and caused Turks to be killed.”
Aslan later deleted the message.
Thousands of people in Turkey face legal action on charges of insulting Erdoğan or government officials.