Lawyer arrested after sexist remarks against AKP MP Özlem Zengin

Duvar English

A Turkish lawyer has been formally arrested after he used sexist remarks against ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) MP Özlem Zengin in a social media post.

Following an investigation launched by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, the police raided Mert Yaşar's house and detained him.

After his testimony was taken, the lawyer was referred to a court on duty, which ruled for his arrest. 

Zengin is known for her scandalous statements regarding human rights violations in prisons.

Last week, she undermined a volume of reports that strip searches are widely practiced in the Turkish correctional system by saying survivors wouldn't have waited as long as they did to report the incidents. 

"An honorable woman, a woman with morals, wouldn't wait a year [to report a strip search.] This is a fictional narrative," Zengin said on Feb. 19, referring to the reports brought into the public's eye by Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) deputy Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu.

Just days after this statement, Zengin said that women get pregnant upon orders from various organizations in the face of criticism on babies growing up in jails.

"These people are having babies upon orders so that they can say, 'There are pregnant women or women with babies in prisons,'" she said on Feb. 21.

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