Police pressure businessmen who sued Erdoğan over Hizmet remarks

According to a report by the Zaman daily, one of the businessmen who sued Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in January because of insults he made about the Hizmet movement, has been under pressure from the police since he made the complaint.

On one day, police paid a visit both to the residence and workplace of the businessman, who requested to remain anonymous, even though there had not been any violation of law on his part. Asking arbitrary questions at the businessman's residence, such as, “Why did you sue the prime minister?”, “What does your husband [the businessman] do?”, “Do you own the house or is it rental?” and “Do you have a car?”, the police asked for the mobile phone number of the businessman and left. The policeman said that they came from the Tepebaşı Police Station in Ankara.

Around the same time as the visits to his house, a number of other police officers went to the businessman's workplace and checked the insurance policies of the employees and the hygiene standards, even though they were not authorized to do so.

Calling the businessman on his cell phone later on, a police officer asked him the same questions and asked him to go to the police station. However, when the businessman answered with the same information he had provided in his original petition, the police officer said that he would not need to go to the station.

Stating that nobody would find any wrongdoing in his life no matter how much they searched, the businessman said that he is a law-abiding citizen. He said that is one of the reasons he could not digest the “hashashin” remark made by the prime minister in reference to members of the Hizmet movement.

In January, 22 Ankara businessmen filed a lawsuit against Erdoğan for his remarks likening followers of the Hizmet movement to a historic group of assassins, claiming that he insulted their character.

Published on Sunday's Zaman, 16 February 2014, Sunday