Turks seek sentence for slam on president
ANKARA, TURKEY— Turkey’s state-run news agency says prosecutors are seeking more than four years in prison for NBA player Enes Kanter on charges of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Anadolu Agency says an indictment prepared by the Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office accuses the New York Knicks player of insulting the president in a series of tweets he posted in May and June 2016.
Kanter said he wasn’t concerned and continued his criticisms of Erdogan, saying, “That dude is a maniac.”
“That stuff really don’t bother me because I’m used to it,” Kanter said after the Knicks practised Wednesday in New York.
“I think it’s just nothing to me, man. I’m in America. I’m good and my focus right now is just going out there, playing basketball, have fun with my teammates and just winning and just thinking about playoffs.”
Kanter cannot return to Turkey because his passport has been cancelled. He would be tried in absentia.
The player is a vocal supporter of Fethullah Gulen, the U.S.-based cleric blamed by Turkey for last year’s failed military coup.
Kanter was detained at the airport in Bucharest, Romania, im Nay while on a worldwide tour for the Enes Kanter Foundation, which provides meals and clothing to the needy worldwide. He said the Turkish embassy had revoked his passport, which he described as a common tactic and an attempt to get critics of the Erdogan regime deported back 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. “I hope people around the world will open their eyes to the human rights abuses. Things have gotten very bad over the last year. This is not my opinion. We don’t know everything that is happening inside Turkey, but we do know some facts. 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.” LOO PART OF LOOT: You could say it’s been a crappy holiday season for ex-Raptor Charlie Villanueva. The longtime NBAer went very public Monday night to report that his Dallas home had been burgled and that thieves went as far as to steal the toilet out of one of the home’s bathrooms.
Posting a picture of an empty corner of a bathroom where a toilet would be, Villanueva became a Twitter phenomenon for a while thanks to his commentary on the situation.
“I’m still in shock of the things they stole but the one that stand out the most is a toilet...... Bro a toilet, can’t get my mind off that. A toilet..... Wow.”
Later, he added: “I called @DallasPD at 6:50pm it’s 10:41pm and no response from them, called 4 times already #findmytoilet.”
Villanueva, who finished his career with the Mavericks, clarified in a later tweet that other furnishings and appliances were stolen along with the toilet.
Dallas police, who Villanueva said were slow to respond to his theft report, are now involved in the matter, Texas media reports said.
Villanueva was a first-round draft pick by the Raptors in 2005. He played one season here before moving onto Milwaukee, Detroit and Dallas. With files from Doug Smith