MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th August, 2018) The German authorities are carrying out an investigation, requested by Ankara, into a Turkish migrant who allegedly assaulted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in his Facebook posts, media reported on Tuesday.
The Turkish side also accused Ibrahim O. of having links to a terror organization after he reposted four messages on Facebook, the German Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported. One of the posts included a wordplay in Kurdish in which Erdogan was described by a word which could be translated as a donkey.
In March, the prosecutor's office of the Neubrandenburg city launched proceedings against Ibrahim O. on suspicions of offending the Turkish president after Ankara had requested legal assistance in this case, the newspaper pointed out.
The suspect's lawyer said that the evidence against his client was unconvincing because reposting Facebook messages was not legally punishable in Germany, the outlet said.
The lawyer added that the German prosecutors sought to transfer the data of Ibrahim O. to the Turkish authorities which would violate his client's rights and provoke a legal scandal. The lawyer noted that he had asked the German authorities not to share the suspect's data with Ankara, but no decision on the issue had been made yet.
The newspaper noted that usually, the German authorities declined similar investigation requests by the Turkish side.
Relations between Berlin and Ankara deteriorated following the failed coup attempt in Turkey in July 2016. Ankara has accused Berlin of providing asylum for coup plotters, while Berlin has strongly criticized the detention of German journalists and human rights activists in Turkey. Another issue that has undermined bilateral relations was the cancellation of Erdogan's campaign rallies in Germany ahead of a referendum that granted the Turkish president more executive powers in April 2017.
