Muhterem Çıtanak, who is a worker from Karamürsel, Kocaeli, is being put on trial for the offence of ‘insulting the President' on social media. He may be sentenced to up to 12 years imprisonment. Çıtanak is being put on trial for the comments he made on a social media platform on 25 August 2019. Çıtanak is on trial for writing "The awaited coup happened in your country, whilst you were on holiday in Marmaris".

According to the report by Zehra Özdilek from Cumhuriyet, whilst working on a shipyard in Karamürsel, Çıtanak shared a comment on social media about the President. It is claimed that his employment was ceased and his house was raided by the police following his comments.

He was then decided to be put on trial for his comments a year after the event. According to the indictment, the following tweets by Çıtanak were deemed to be an offence:

"You are the last person @RTErdogan to criticize @ekrem_imamoglu [Istanbul Mayor] for being on holiday while Istanbul was flooded. The awaited coup happened in your country, whilst you were on holiday in Marmaris. You have learnt about the coup from your millioner pensioner brother in law. @ekrem_imamoglu is achieving what you have failed to do in 25 years of power."

In his statement Çıtanak said "I have read many tweets about the President being on holiday during the coup and I wanted to emphasize the similarity between that and Imamoglu's case and shared a tweet. I did not know it was an offence." (EVRENSEL DAILY)