A 66-year-old homeless man in Turkey deliberately insulted President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the hope of securing food and a place to sleep in jail, according to the Turkish media.
The man, identified only by the initials R.K., was detained in a park in Alanya, a resort town in the southern province of Antalya, on suspicion of insulting the president. A judge subsequently ordered his arrest and pretrial detention.
“I have nowhere to stay, I sleep in rubbish dumps. That is why I did it,” he told a court, which ordered him jailed pending trial, according to the Sözcü newspaper.
He had reportedly been detained on three previous occasions on the same allegation but had not secured the pretrial detention he was seeking.
Insulting the president is a criminal offense in Turkey, a law that has frequently been used to prosecute government critics.
Thousands of people, including journalists, teenagers and a former Miss Turkey, have faced prosecution under the law.
Although the offense has been part of Turkish law for decades, prosecutions have increased sharply under Erdoğan, particularly since Turkey adopted an executive presidential system in 2018.
Between 2016 and the end of 2025, Justice Ministry statistics cited by Agence France-Presse indicate that prosecutors opened nearly 83,000 cases involving offenses under Articles 299 to 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, which cover insulting the president, denigrating Turkish national symbols and insulting the Turkish nation or state institutions.
Under Article 299, insulting the president is punishable by one to four years in prison, with the sentence increased if the offense is committed in public.
Agence France-Presse, with reporting from Turkish Minute
The post Homeless man insults Erdoğan in the hope of getting food and shelter in jail appeared first on Turkish Minute.