Turkish authorities havearrested the cafeteria manager of the opposition Cumhuriyetnewspaper for insulting the president after he said he would notserve tea to Tayyip Erdogan, one of the manager's lawyers toldReuters on Monday.
Senol Buran, who runs the cafeteria at the Istanbul officeof Cumhuriyet, was taken into custody after police raided hishome late on Saturday, lawyer Ozgur Urfa said. The newspaper isamong the few still critical of the government.
Insulting the president is a crime punishable by up to fouryears in prison in Turkey.
Lawyers for Erdogan, who has dominated Turkish politics formore than a decade, have filed more than 1,800 cases againstpeople including cartoonists, a former Miss Turkey winner andschoolchildren on accusations of insulting him.
Following a failed coup in July, Erdogan said he would dropthe outstanding suits, in a one-off gesture of national unity.
Buran is jailed pending trial and the court date, if any,has not yet been announced. The Justice Ministry would need toapprove the launch of a court case.
Buran was detained after a police officer providing securityfor the newspaper said he heard him use a derogatory term todescribe Erdogan and say he would refuse to serve the presidenttea if he ever visited the cafeteria, his lawyer said.
According to court documents obtained by Reuters, Buran hasdenied using an insulting term, while confirming that he hadsaid he would refuse to serve the president tea. He also said hehad a dispute with the police officer two years ago.
The judge at an Istanbul court on Sunday ordered Buran'sarrest pending trial, citing “strong suspicion of crimecommitted” and saying the suspect might otherwise put pressureon witnesses, the documents showed.
The Cumhuriyet has confirmed that Buran was arrested.
Ten Cumhuriyet staff including its top editor and seniorexecutives were jailed in November pending trial on suspicion ofcrimes on behalf of Kurdish militants and U.S.-based clericFethullah Gulen, who is accused of instigating the failed July15 coup.
The newspaper's previous editor, Can Dundar, was jailed lastyear for publishing state secrets involving Turkey's support forSyrian rebels. He was later released and is now overseas.
Since the July coup, more than 110,000 people have beensacked or suspended and 40,000 jailed pending trial.
Western allies and rights groups say they fear Erdogan isusing the coup attempt to crush dissent.
Turkish authorities last week froze assets of 54 journalistswho have been under investigation and some already jailed oversuspected links to what Ankara calls the “Gulenist TerrorOrganisation", according to Hurriyet newspaper.
Gulen has said the charges against him are false and hascondemned the coup.
