A Dutch journalist was arrested early Sunday at her home in Turkey for tweets deemed critical of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to her Twitter account.
“Police at the door. No joke,” wrote Ebru Umar, a well-known atheist and feminist journalist of Turkish origin.
Umar, 45, recently wrote a piece critical of Erdogan for the Dutch daily Metro, extracts of which she then tweeted, leading to her arrest.
“I’m not free,” she said in a second tweet as she left her home in Kusadasi, a resort town in western Turkey.
Dutch blog Geenstijl said they had received an sms message from Umar saying she was to appear before a judge Sunday morning, and that she had been arrested after someone reported her tweets on a hotline set up by the Turkish officials.
The hashtag #freeebru was trending in the Netherlands, with Dutch politicians and commentators calling for her release.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said in a tweet that he “had had contact with @umarebru last night. Our embassy is in close contact with her for assistance.”
