İhsan Eliaçık, a critical writer and a prominent theologian in Turkey, was detained by Turkish police on Thursday on a warrant issued as part of an investigation being overseen in the eastern Turkish province of Batman, the Mesopotamia news agency reported, and later he was released pending trial on Friday morning.
Eliaçık went to the İstanbul Courthouse on Thursday due to an ongoing investigation into him in İstanbul, but he learned that a detention warrant had been issued for him as part of another investigation in Batman.
The Diken news website reported that the investigation of Eliaçık in Batman was launched on accusations of insulting Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
On Thursday the writer was unable to testify to a prosecutor due to a failure in the IT Voice and Image System (SEGBİS). Eliaçık is expected to be released after giving his testimony.
In April Eliaçık was sentenced to six years, three months in prison on charges of disseminating the propaganda of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in his speeches.
The İstanbul 26th High Criminal Court, which heard Eliaçık’s trial, also imposed a domestic and foreign travel ban on the writer, who must check in two times a week at a police station while appealing his verdict at a higher court.
Eliaçık’s detention for failing to go to Batman to testify as part of the investigation there is difficult to justify due to the fact that he is not allowed to leave İstanbul in line with the court ruling in April.