Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) member İdris İlhan was arrested on Thursday on charges of disseminating the propaganda of terrorist organizations and opposing the law on Turkey’s Capital Markets Board (SPK) by sharing comments on the loss in value of the Turkish lira against the US dollar, the Cumhuriyet daily reported.
According to the report the Siirt Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation after İlhan, a former member from the HDP of Siirt’s general provincial council, on Aug. 13 tweeted: “We are not sinking economically because of the increased value of the dollar, the dollar is increasing due to our sinking economy. The dollar is valued at 7.15 [Turkish lira].”
İlhan was detained on Wednesday and arrested by a court on Thursday.
“My target with that message was to make an economic evaluation on a topic that concerns 80 million people. I did not have any intention to manipulate anything,” İlhan testified while in detention.
Meral Danış Bektaş, the HDP’s Siirt deputy, reacted to the decision to arrest in a tweet: “I will leave it to the lawyers to evaluate this decision.”