Elected Mufti of Komotini İbrahim Şerif was called to bear testimony once again!

Halit Habip Oğlu: “Recurrent legal prosecutions against the muftis elected by the Western Thrace Turkish community in Greece have become an instrument of intimidation and oppression and need to be terminated immediately”

İbrahim Şerif, Mufti of Komotini elected by the Western Thrace Turkish community in Greece and President of the Consultative Committee of the Turkish Minority of Western Thrace (BTADDK), was called to bear testimony once again on 29 October 2018. Şerif, against whom a legal investigation was started by the Prosecution Office of Rodopi with the allegation that he had committed the crimes of “dividing the public” and “promoting violence” when he spoke at the commemoration ceremony organized on the occasion of the “July 15 Democracy and National Unity Day” at the Consulate General of Turkey in Komotini, bore his testimony in written with his advocate at the Komotini Police Department.

“With İbrahim Şerif, Elected Mufti of Komotini, having been called for bearing testimony at the police department upon the order of the prosecutor, a new legal investigation has been added to the ongoing ones targeting the leading persons of the Turkish community in Western Thrace recently. This latest incident has shown once again that the recurrent legal prosecutions against the muftis elected and accepted by the Western Thrace Turks by their free will have turned into an instrument of intimidation and oppression. We call on the Greek authorities to respect freedom of religion of the Turkish community in Western Thrace and put an end to the attempts intimidating and suppressing our muftis we have elected”, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF)