Kldarolu, tried for calling Erdoan a “thief”, is being prosecuted again for the same remarks

Kemal Kldarolu, the former leader of Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), faces a new defamation suit filed by President Recep Tayyip Erdoan, after Kldarolu reiterated in court that Erdoan was a thief, which was the basis of an ongoing criminal trial. where Kldarolu is accused of insulting the president.

Erdoan's lawyer Hseyin Aydn announced on Monday that a civil suit seeking 500,000 TL (about $14,500) in damages had been filed against Kldarolu for statements made during a defense in court on Friday .

The legal complaint claims that Kldarolus' repeated accusations, including calling Erdoan a thief and thief-in-chief, constituted a serious violation of Erdoan's personal rights and dignity.

The defamation action comes as part of an ongoing criminal case in which Kldarolu is accused of publicly insulting a public official for similar remarks made a few years earlier, as part of politically charged 2013 corruption investigations If convicted in this criminal case, Kldarolu faces up to 11 years and 8 months in prison and a possible political ban.

Kldarolu, who led the CHP for more than a decade and ran as the opposition bloc's presidential candidate in the 2023 elections, has long accused Erdoan of corruption.

The charges in the criminal trial stem from comments he made after corruption investigations, known as the December 17-25 investigations, were revealed in 2013 and he referred to then-prime minister Erdoan as Baalan, a term which translates to chief thief.

Erdoan has always denied the allegations, calling the investigations a plot orchestrated by the sectarian Glen movement, a former ally he now accuses of trying to overthrow his government.

The criminal case against Kldarolu focuses on Kldarolu's use of terms like thief-in-chief, in speeches and public statements.

Last week, during his defense at the criminal trial, Kldarolu reiterated his allegations, saying: “I present myself here not as someone accused of theft or embezzlement,” he said, “but as someone 'one who dared to call a thief a thief.

In a statement posted on social media, Aydn, Erdoan's lawyer, said Kldarolus' remarks in the courtroom constituted a clear abuse of the right to defense.

The statements made in court are a continuation of the same baseless accusations that have violated the personal rights of our presidents for years, Aydn said. He noted that Erdoan had previously withdrawn all charges against opposition figures in the spirit of reconciliation after a failed coup attempt in 2016, which he blamed on the sectarian Glen movement, but that continued behavior of Kldarolus left no alternative but to seek legal redress.

Even after eight years, there has been no improvement in Kldarolus' conduct, which has devolved into a persistent pattern of crude and offensive rhetoric, Aydn said. The statement also said that Erdoan's team had filed a separate criminal complaint with the Ankara General Prosecutor's Office over the same remarks.

Kldarolus' lawyer, Celal Elik, dismissed the new legal action as an attempt to suppress legitimate criticism and insisted his client would not back down. Hearing the truth and facing evidence of corruption may be uncomfortable for Erdoan, but we will not take a single step back, Elik said in a statement posted on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

Describing the defense of the Kldarolus trial as a manifesto, Elik pledged to continue presenting evidence of corruption and abuse of power. We will repeatedly exercise our right to prove the truth, he said. Erdo's distress at these revelations only confirms our correctness.

After losing the 2023 presidential election to Erdoan, Kldarolu had to resign as leader of the CHP but remained an influential figure in the political opposition.