Turkey wants to imprison Knicks’ Kanter

Turkey’s state-run news agency reported Tuesday that prosecutors there are seeking a lengthy prison term for New York Knicks centre Enes Kanter on charges he insulted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The indictment, which asks that the Turkish national serve a prison term of longer than four years, is based on a series of tweets he posted in May and June 2016, according to The Associated Press.

Kanter has long been a critic of the Erdogan regime and has expressed support for Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric whom Erdogan blamed for a failed coup attempt last year. Gulen, who has condemned and denied any involvement in the plot, is living in exile in the United States.

In May, Kanter was detained at an airport in Romania while on a worldwide tour for the Enes Kanter Foundation, which provides meals and clothing to the needy. He said the Turkish embassy revoked his passport, which he described as a common tactic and an attempt to get critics of the Er dog an regime deported to Turkey for punishment. With help from the Oklahoma City Thunder — his then-NBA team — the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and both Oklahoma senators, he was able to travel to London and then on to New York.

“You guys need to know what is going on in Turkey right now,” Kanter wrote on the Players’ Tribune earlier this year, after his airport scare. “Newspapers and media have been restricted. Academics have been fired. Peaceful protesting is not allowed. Many people have been imprisoned without any real charges. There are reports of torture and rape and worse.”

The Turkish government reportedly issued an arrest warrant for Kanter after the airport incident, accusing him of membership in a “terror group.”

He said his voicing opposition to the Erdogan government, “makes me a dangerous man.”