Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan sought an injunction against Axel Springer boss Mathias Döpfner for laughing out loud at a poem mocking the Turkish president.
Comedian Jan Böhmermann and Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Last month German chancellor Angela Merkel agreed to allow the Erdogan government to prosecute German comedian Jan Böhmermann for an anti-Erdogan poem.
Reuters in Berlin reported:
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is seeking an injunction against the chief executive of the German publisher Axel Springer.
The president’s lawyer, Ralf Höcker, said Erdo?an was taking legal action due to Mathias Döpfner’s support for a poem read out by comedian Jan Böhmermann on German television in March.
In an open letter published inGermany’s Welt am Sonntag newspaper in April, Döpfner expressed solidarity with Böhmermann, saying he had laughed out loud at the poem and “wholeheartedly” supported what the comedian had said.