Former interior minister Süleyman Soylu has been ordered by a Turkish court to pay a fine for insulting main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the Evrensel daily reported on Thursday.
The Ankara 15th Civil Court of First Instance ordered Soylu, currently a lawmaker from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), to pay TL 40,000 ($1,490) on the grounds that he insulted the CHP leader on Nov. 18.
The development was announced by Kılıçdaroğlu’s lawyer, Celal Çelik, on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Thursday.
“We had stated that we would hold Süleyman Soylu accountable for his rudeness! We kept our promise. … We will continue to upset individuals like Soylu and demand answers from them,” Çelik said.
Süleyman Soylu'dan, seviyesizliğinin hesabını soracağımızı söylemiştik!
Sözümüzü tuttuk..
18.11.2022 Tarihli hakareti nedeniyle Soylu aleyhine açtığımız davayı kazandık.
Ankara 15. Asliye Hukuk Mahkemesinde görülen davanın bugünkü son duruşmasında, Genel Başkanımız Kemal…
— Celal ÇELİK (@CelikBaskan06) September 7, 2023
Kılıçdaroğlu himself is frequently sued by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and other senior politicians from the ruling AKP for insult and defamation. The courts don’t generally rule in his favor since judicial independence was significantly weakened in Turkey following a failed coup in 2016, when thousands of judges and prosecutors were purged from their jobs under the pretext of an anti-coup fight.
Erdoğan is accused by critics of filling the judicial posts with his cronies and destroying the separation of powers in the country to establish his one-man rule.