Turkish President Files Complaint Against Dutch MP

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday lodged a criminal complaint against Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders over an insulting tweet.

The president's lawyer Huseyin Aydin filed the complaint over Wilders' insulting contents targeting Erdogan.

In a criminal complaint submitted to the Office of the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor, Aydin called the leader of Party for Freedom "suspect" and said his insulting remarks are "criminal libel" and "cannot be evaluated under freedom of express."

"Suspect Wilders, in his content targeting our first [directly] elected [by public] president, used expressions insulting the honor and dignity of our president, and committed the crime publicly by targeting his personality, dignity and reputation," it was stated in the complaint.

"Fascism is not in our book, it's in your book. Social justice is in our book," Erdogan said on Sunday at a meeting of his ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party in the eastern Malatya province, calling Wilders a "fascist".

His remarks came after Wilders, known for his anti-Islam stance, shared on Twitter an insulting cartoon of the Turkish president which was denounced by several Turkish officials, including Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. -