Turkey: Five arrested for 'insulting' President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Five men were jailed in Turkey for "insulting" President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, reports have said, one of several such cases that have intensified alarm over the country's slide towards authoritarianism.

The five from the southern province of Sanliurfa were accused of damaging the president on social media, according to the Dogan news agency. A sixth person was arrested but later released. Almost 2,000 people have been prosecuted for "insulting" Erdogan since the former premier became president in August 2014, Turkey's justice minister said in March.

The court cases have raised concerns over freedom of expression in Turkey and Erdogan has also been accused of seeking to muzzle the press, NGOs and academics. Erdogan has repeatedly denied that there had been any crackdown on free expression in his country.

A German comedian has become the centre of a diplomatic spat between Turkey and Germany over a satirical poem that accused Erdogan of paedophilia and bestiality. Turkey has demanded that Berlin prosecutes the TV satirist, Jan Bohmermann, for slander.

In an earlier report, Erdogan warned on Thursday that he will continue to sue critics who insult him in Turkey, where journalists and other critics of the president have been imprisoned. Since becoming president in August 2014, Erdogan has filed a record 1,845 court cases against individuals for insulting him, resulting in a more than a dozen sentences, activists have said. Insulting the president carries a maximum of four years in prison in Turkey.