The jailed leader of Turkey’s far-right Victory Party faces up to nearly eight years in prison, with prosecutors indicting him for allegedly inciting hatred, Turkish media reported on Tuesday.
Ümit Özdağ, chairman of the Victory Party (ZP), has been in pretrial detention since January 21 and was formally charged on Tuesday, the 77th day of his imprisonment.
Prosecutors are seeking a prison sentence ranging from one year, 10 months to seven years, 10 months, citing the offense of “continuously inciting hatred and enmity among the public through the press”
Under Article 216 of Turkey’s penal code, publicly provoking hatred between groups based on class, race, religion or region is punishable by one to three years in prison if it poses an explicit and imminent threat to public safety.
If the offense is committed through the press or broadcast media, Article 218 mandates that the sentence be increased by half, unless the content qualifies as news reporting or legitimate criticism.
Özdağ faces an increased sentence because prosecutors have charged him with multiple counts of the offense, though it remains unclear how many separate violations they allege.
He was detained in Ankara in January on a separate charge of “insulting the president” and later transferred to İstanbul, where he was arrested under Turkey’s penal code provision criminalizing incitement.
Since then, he has been held in Marmara Prison, formerly known as Silivri Prison, a facility often used to detain political opponents and government critics.
In recent weeks Özdağ has alleged that his imprisonment is politically motivated and that fabricated charges are being used to justify his prolonged detention.
He also announced plans to begin a hunger strike after Eid al-Fitr, the three-day Muslim holiday marking the end of Ramadan, to protest what he calls the abuse of judicial power for political ends.
The government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has come under international criticism for its treatment of political opponents as the crackdown on dissent intensifies across the country.