Ankara, Jan 22 (AP) Turkish authorities on Tuesday arrested the leader of a far-right opposition party on charges of inciting violence through a series of anti-refugee posts on social media, his party said.

Umit Ozdag, the leader of Turkiye's anti-immigrant Victory Party, was detained by police on Monday as part of an investigation into allegations that he insulted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a speech he delivered a day earlier.

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The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's office, however, released Ozdag from custody on charges of insulting the president but subsequently ordered his arrest on charges of "inciting hatred and hostility among the public", the party said.

Prosecutors presented 11 of the politician's posts on X as evidence against him, the party said.

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The prosecutor's office also held Ozdag responsible for anti-Syrian refugee rioting that erupted in the central Turkish province of Kayseri last year, during which hundreds of homes and businesses were attacked.

Ekrem Imamoglu, the popular mayor of Istanbul who is seen as a possible candidate to challenge Erdogan in the next elections, criticised Ozdag's arrest, saying on X that "Everyone knows that this is political meddling in the judiciary".

Imamoglu, who is a member of Turkiye's main opposition party, was convicted of insulting members of Turkiey's electoral board in 2022 and faces a two-year ban from politics if his conviction is upheld by a court of appeals.

Ozdag, a 63-year-old former academic, is an outspoken critic of Turkiey's refugee policies and has called for the repatriation of millions of Syrian refugees.

The politician was being taken to Silivri prison on the outskirts of Istanbul, according to his party.

Mehmet Ali Sehirlioglu, the party's spokesman, would temporarily assume leadership of the Victory Party. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)