Barbaros Sansal, a vocal critic of Turkey’s ruling conservative party, was taken into custody on Tuesday after being beaten on that tarmac of Istanbul’s main airport. The fashion designer was arrested on the grounds of ‘inciting hatred among the public’ after posting a video tweet on New Year’s Eve criticizing the country’s celebrations ‘while there is so much filth, vileness and poverty in the country.’ Mr Sansal’s tweet went live just hours before a gunman attacked a popular nightclub in Istanbul, killing 39 people. Mr Sansal’s lawyer, Efkan Bolac, has told the press that his client has asked to be kept in a single-occupancy cell because he ‘fears for his life.’

Sources: BBC; Washington Post