Former Islamist party official says Turkish pop star "should be killed"

A former official of an Islamist party in Turkey tweeted on Friday that Gulsen Colakoglu, a pop star who was arrested a day before over remarks made on stage during a concert, "should be killed."

Charges against Colakoglu has been brought when a video recorded in a concert was released. She is heard in the video saying, "He had studied at a imam-hatip school. This is where his perversion comes from." While she does not say the name of the person in the video, the person is reportedly a member of the band, and she intended the remarks as a joke.

The pop star was charged for "inciting the people into hatred and animosity" over her remarks about Turkish religious schools (imam-hatip schools), and arrested on Thursday to be sent to a prison in Istanbul.

While Omer Yildiz, the former chair of the New Welfare Party's Kagithane district branch in Istanbul, deleted his tweet upon reactions on social media, he also addressed Gulsen Colakoglu saying, "You overstepped your boundaries, you're close to your destined moment of death."

The officials of the Islamist party said that disciplinary proceedings were launched over Yildiz's tweet, and that they did not approve his remarks.

Turkish pop star Tarkan expressed his support for Gulsen Colakoglu on Friday, saying:

"We are further bewildered every day in the face of the lawlessness we witness and the hypocrisy and deformity of our judicial system."

Joining a campaign on Twitter for the release of Colakoglu, Tarkan added:

"This unjust treatment against Gulsen should be ended and she should be immediately released."

Turkish Bars Association (TTB) and the bar associations of Diyarbakir, Adana and Izmir also reacted to the arrest of Gulsen Colakoglu.

TTB said that the measure of arrest, which requires specific conditions to be implemented, has once again been used as a mean of punishment in the case of Gulsen Colakoglu.