A Turkish man who filed a criminal complaint against his wife for insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he is sorry his marriage has broken down but has no regrets for defending a leader he said had transformed Turkey.
Truck driver Ali Dinc, from the Aegean coastal city of Izmir, filed the complaint against his wife last Friday, saying she had repeatedly insulted Erdogan with "unspeakable obscenities" during his televised speeches.
Insulting the Turkish president is a crime punishable by up to four years in jail.
Lawyers for Erdogan, who has dominated politics for more than a decade, have sued dozens of people including cartoonists, a former Miss Turkey winner and teenagers.
But Dinc's case appears to be the first time anybody has faced legal action for insulting him in the privacy of their own home.
"One day I said enough is enough. I will record your insults and I will file a legal complaint. She said: 'Turn on the recorder so I can repeat them'," Dinc told Reuters.
He did not say exactly what his wife's insults were.
The prosecutor is yet to question Dinc's wife before accepting the case.
Dinc said his wife, who unlike him was a staunch opposition supporter, filed for divorce at the start of the month and that he had been living on a construction site and in his truck ever since. But he denied his actions were motivated by revenge.
"I would do it again. I loved her, but I don't love her anymore. If she'd only have insulted me, I could have accepted that. But I can't accept her insults against Erdogan," he said.
Reuters
