İYİ Party leader files criminal complaint against MHP leader

ANKARA

Meral Akşener, chairperson of the İYİ (Good) Party, has filed a criminal complaint against Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli after a group of MHP members staged a protest in front of her house on Oct. 4.

Akşener submitted her appeal to an Istanbul court through her lawyers on Oct. 15, accusing the MHP leader of “issuing threats, offense of libel and inciting crime.”

The İYİ Party leader’s move came amid escalated tension between the two parties after Akşener harshly slammed Bahçeli over his support to the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) economic policies.

Bahçeli had responded to Akşener through his Twitter account, which was followed by a protest of the MHP’s local organization in Istanbul’s Üsküdar district of. A group of MHP followers staged a midnight protest in front of Akşener’s house, which later prompted legal prosecution upon the instruction of the Interior Ministry.

“I will no longer consider Mr. Bahçeli as a political counterpart and will not reply to him. I will sue him in court,” Akşener told reporters last week.

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