Lawsuit against the Elected Mufti of Komotini İbrahim Şerif

Halit Habip Oğlu: “We want actions and practices aiming to suppress and intimidate with groundless accusations the muftis elected by the Turkish community in Western Thrace itself terminated immediately.”

A lawsuit was filed against İbrahim Şerif, Elected Mufti of Komotini in Greece and Chairman of the Western Thrace Turkish Minority Consultative Committee for “usurping the office of the mufti”.

Mufti Şerif is being accused of executing activities at mass circumcision ceremony for the Western Thrace Turks in Alankuyu neighborhood in the city of Komotini in December 2016 by interfering in the field of mandate of the appointed mufti and therefore “usurping the office of the mufti”. The case will be heard on 8 May 2018 at Single Judge Criminal Court in Komotini.

“First of all, we as ABTTF representing the Western Thrace Turks living in Europe would like to extend our best wishes to our valuable Mufti İbrahim Şerif and like him to know that including the litigation process, we are always with him. Previously, our elected mufti of Xanthi Ahmet Mete was sentenced to imprisonment for 7 months with the same accusation in November 2017. Now we have this lawsuit filed against our elected mufti of Komotini İbrahim Şerif. We want actions and practices aiming to suppress and intimidate with groundless accusations the muftis elected by the Turkish community in Western Thrace itself terminated immediately and call on our country Greece to respect religious autonomy and freedom of religion of the Western Thrace Turks”, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).