Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has filed two lawsuits against the leader of the main opposition party over claims he made against him in a speech, his lawyer said Thursday.
The head of state is seeking 500,000 Turkish lira (nearly $12,000) in compensation for "moral damage" and "contempt", Huseyin Aydin wrote on the social media platform X.
Aydin said CHP leader Ozgur Ozel had made "inappropriate and unfounded statements and accusations against our president" in a speech on Wednesday evening.
Ozel told party supporters in an Istanbul suburb that the authorities had prevented the display of posters of the city's jailed mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu.
Imamoglu is considered to be the main rival to Erdogan at the next presidential election.
"They are afraid of his image," he said of the mayor, who has been detained since his arrest in March.
"You don't become a hero by attacking his image or his family," Ozel told Erdogan. "Now restrain those under your command and your dogs who are harassing us."
Erdogan's lawyer said the lawsuit for moral damages had been filed before a civil court in Ankara, while the second was a criminal complaint lodged with prosecutors in the capital.
Erdogan filed a similar complaint for contempt and defamation last November against Imamoglu, who is facing a slew of charges, including for corruption, defamation and insulting the president.
He was most recently accused of espionage.