Turkish Court Acquits HSBC Turkey CEO of Insulting Erdogan
April 11 2019 - 7:56AM
Dow Jones News
By David Gauthier-Villars
ISTANBUL--A Turkish court has acquitted the head of HSBC
Holdings PLC's (HSBC) unit in Turkey of a charge of insulting
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The court acquitted HSBC Turkey Chief Executive Selim Kervanci
on Thursday on the grounds that there had been no criminal intent
on his part, according to the defendant's lawyer and state news
agency Anadolu.
Before the verdict, Mr. Kervanci said he had never sought to
insult Mr. Erdogan.
Mr. Erdogan has used Turkish law, which criminalizes insults
against a person's honor with maximum penalties of four years in
prison, to silence opponents and critics.
In Mr. Kervanci's case, prosecutors weighed whether the banker's
June 2, 2013 re-tweet of a post that contained a link to a film on
Adolf Hitler, could be regarded as an insult against Mr. Erdogan,
who was prime minister at the time.
Mr. Kervanci told the court he had not reviewed the content of
the video before forwarding it, his lawyer, Deniz Ketenci,
said.
HSBC officials in Turkey declined to comment.
Write to David Gauthier-Villars at
david.gauthier-villars@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 11, 2019 07:41 ET (11:41 GMT)
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