By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
New York Knicks center Enes Kanter is facing charges for various insults against Turkish Basketball Federation president, chief advisor to president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and former NBAer Hedo Turkoglu, according to Turkish newspaper Sabah.
An indictment was filed on the grounds that Kanter has “insulted Turkoglu more than once on different dates”, per the report by Sabah.
The Istanbul Cyber Crimes Investigation Bureau prepared the indictment which is based on “humiliating and hurtful messages” made by Kanter against Turkoglu on his social media.
The indictment mentions that even though Kanter won’t appear before the judge, he will be tried in absentia because he “has to be punished for the charges of insult”. The case will be heard before the Assize Court.
This isn’t the first Kanter faces accusations by the Turkish government. Apart from the charges for “being a member of an armed terrorist group” due to his support of exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is considered by the Turkish government as the mastermind of the 2016 failed military coup, Turkish prosecutors have also sought a four-year jail term for Kanter for charges of insulting president Erdogan.