No more ‘hero’ T-shirts, suspects will wear brown, says Erdogan
TERRORIST or coup suspects will be made to wear special uniforms when they appear in court, Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said, after a defendant showed up for trial wearing a T-shirt that said “hero” on it.
Mr Erdogan, who said last month that suspects in the failed 2016 military coup should be given jumpsuits like those worn by detainees at the US military prison in Guantánamo, said on Saturday that clothing was to be brown.
“No more coming dressed as they want,” Mr Erdogan said in a speech in the eastern town of Malatya on Saturday. Defendants accused of involvement in the failed military coup will wear jumpsuits, while terrorism suspects will have jackets and trousers, he added. “They will be introduced to the world like that. Now they will show off this way,” he said.
Since the coup attempt in July last year, more than 50,000 people have been detained and 150,000 suspended in a measure that has drawn criticism from some Western allies. Turkey says it is a justified response to the threat the country faces. The “hero” T-shirt worn by a defendant in a trial of coup suspects three weeks ago led to a heated argument in the courtroom. The judge briefly suspended the hearing.
Several people were detained by police across the country for wearing the same T-shirts, Turkish media reported.
The move came as Mr Erdogan accused Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, of aiding terrorism by ignoring files sent to Berlin and refusing to hand over suspects wanted by Turkish authorities.
Mr Erdogan said Germany, which is home to three million Turkish immigrants, harboured supporters of the Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, the leader, he said, of the failed coup.
“Germany is abetting terrorists,” said Mr Erdogan. “We gave Merkel 4,500 dossiers, but have not received an answer on a single one of them,” he said yesterday.