Prosecutor files criminal complaint against Gülen for seeking legal rights


Date posted: April 13, 2015

İZZETTİN ÇİÇEK / ANKARA

Ankara Public Prosecutor Cevat İşlek has filed a criminal complaint against Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen for seeking to bring a lawsuit against Akşam daily columnist Emin Pazarcı for insulting him.

Nurullah Albayrak, Gülen’s legal counsel, recently filed a criminal complaint against Pazarcı on the grounds that Pazarcı insulted and defamed Gülen in one of his columns. The Bakırköy Prosecutor’s Office considered the column to fall under freedom of expression. Albayrak filed an appeal to a court to overturn the prosecutor’s decision, but the court rejected the appeal.

After the appeal was rejected, Pazarcı then filed a criminal complaint against Gülen on the grounds that Gülen defamed him through the legal complaint. While the Bakırköy Prosecutor’s Office considered Pazarcı’s column to be under freedom of expression, Prosecutor İşlek prepared a three-page indictment defending Pazarcı’s claim. The prosecutor asked the court to punish Gülen.

After a corruption scandal erupted on Dec. 17, 2013, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and then-Prime Minister and current President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accused the Gülen movement, also known as the Hizmet movement, of plotting against the government through the graft probe.

Erdoğan defined the members of the movement, which is inspired by the ideals of Gülen, of being a “parallel state” and launched a witch hunt against the movement after the probe.

Source: Today's Zaman


Related News

Why does Turkey’s President Erdogan want Knicks’ Enes Kanter in jail?

A Turkish prosecutor asked for NBA’s New York Knicks star Enes Kanter to be jailed for up to four years for insulting Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, the state-run news agency Anadolu reported on Wednesday. “I have said less than that honorless (man) deserves. Add another 4 years for me, master,” he told his 526,000 Twitter followers.

Police waiting at hospital to detain İzmir woman after childbirth

Police are waiting at an İzmir hospital to detain Gülçin Çetinel, a Turkish woman who gave birth to her first baby early on Thursday, over alleged links to Turkey’s Gülen group.

TİB conspired to libel Hizmet, tampered with system logs

An anonymous whistleblower from the Telecommunications Directorate (TİB), the agency responsible for carrying out legal wiretaps, sent an email to newspapers and TV stations on Tuesday claiming that there is a conspiracy to bring the Hizmet movement under suspicion of infiltrating the TİB.

65-year-old grandmother looking after twin babies as mother, father in jail for 5 months

Twin daughters of the Istanbul-based Şengün family were handed over to their 65-year-old grandmother as both E. Şengün and his wife F. were arrested after being kept under detention for 30 days. They are about to turn one with no father or mother in company.

Turkish PM asks citizens for help in witch-hunt against Gülen sympathizers

Describing Gülen movement people as “microbes,” the prime minister told citizens to “cleanse the microbes” from society as they serve the country and the nation no good. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had called Gülen sympathizers “viruses” long before Turkey’s massive purge accelerated in the post-July 15 era.

Erdoğan’s Fight against the Gülen Movement & The Demise of Turkish State Rationality

In a nutshell, Erdoğan’s divisive political rhetoric and his attempts to foster anti-Gülenist sentiments have perfectly served his own political interests within the country, but they have not served the country’s interests in the international arena, as they raise serious doubts about the credibility and rationality of the state as embodied in Erdoğan’s personality.

Latest News

Turkish inmate jailed over alleged Gülen links dies of heart attack in prison

Message of Condemnation and Condolences for Mass Shooting at Bondi Beach, Sydney

Media executive Hidayet Karaca marks 11th year in prison over alleged links to Gülen movement

ECtHR faults Turkey for convictions of 2,420 applicants over Gülen links in follow-up to 2023 judgment

New Book Exposes Erdoğan’s “Civil Death Project” Targeting the Hizmet Movement

European Human Rights Treaty Faces Legal And Political Tests

ECtHR rejects Turkey’s appeal, clearing path for retrials in Gülen-linked cases

Erdoğan’s Civil Death Project’ : The ‘politicide’ spanning more than a decade

Fethullah Gülen’s Vision and the Purpose of Hizmet

In Case You Missed It

Junior Coalition Partner Demands Explanation Why Bulgarian Govt Turned over Abdullah Buyuk to Turkey

Fethullah Gulen, the [Gulen] community, and the prep schools

Political predictions for 2014

Abant Platform discusses thriving relations between Turkey and Africa

Turks and Egyptians tight-knit at Turkish Olympiads Egypt Finals

Gülen’s relatives dismayed over smear campaign against Islamic scholar

Turkish school in Romania moves to new building

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News