:quality(75)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/elcomercio/YDZ6VZTNONHIBP4DQXD7XXCICI.jpg "Turkey: jail for a baker for saying that eating a lot of bread is for fools")
A Turkish court today ordered preventive detention for Cihan Kolivar, head of the Istanbul Bakers’ Union, accused of insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the nation for claiming that bread is a staple food of “foolish societies”.
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Kolivar was arrested yesterday after criticizing the excessive consumption of bread in Turkish society during a debate on Habertürk television.
“Bread is a staple food of foolish societies. I speak of a scientific thing, it is not a saying. Our society is stuffed with bread and has been with these leaders for 20 years,” said Kolivar, in apparent reference to the length of time that the Islamist AKP party and its founder, the country’s current president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have been in power.
Testifying in court, Kolivar rejected the accusation ofand “insulting the Turkish nation” and said that he had only wanted to illustrate the health damage caused by excessive consumption of bread, reports the Birgün newspaper.
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The Prosecutor’s Office added to the dossier also several messages from Kolivar on Twitter and filed an accusation of “insult the president” sentenced to one to four years in prison, a crime that in recent years has been a frequent reason for trial and imprisonment in Turkey.
The defendant’s lawyer, Bilgi Çiftçi, denounced to the press that these messages on Twitter expressed a general criticism, without referring to any specific person.
Numerous Turkish media affirm that Turkey is the country with the highest consumption of bread per person and year in the world, although they also recall that a significant volume of bread is thrown away every day.
Source: Elcomercio
I, Ronald Payne, am a journalist and author who dedicated his life to telling the stories that need to be said. I have over 7 years of experience as a reporter and editor, covering everything from politics to business to crime.
