Prosecutor summons Turkish journalist over Erdoğan ‘insult’

ISTANBUL

A Turkish prosecutor has summoned a prominent journalist over his remarks in an interview he recently conducted.

Weeks before he was appointed as the editor-in-chief of daily Cumhuriyet earlier this month, journalist Can Dündar conducted an interview with Celal Kara, a Turkish prosecutor who was in charge of a massive corruption investigation in December 2013 that targeted several government figures.

A criminal investigation has been launched into Dündar over some of his remarks in the interview that allegedly “insulted” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Dündar is expected to testify as a suspect at the Istanbul Courthouse in Çağlayan in the coming days.

In the interview, Kara said he had been planning to name Erdoğan as the prime suspect of the alleged graft scheme in the indictment he was preparing.

The government has accused Kara, as well as many other judicial and security officials, of being part of a “coup attempt” led by the followers of U.S.-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gülen in the bureaucracy.

Both criminal and parliamentary probes into corruption claims were dropped in 2014, as the government reshuffled scores of civil servants and launched probes into the alleged activities of illegal wiretapping and espionage by Gülenists.