Three left-wing activists who allegedly conspired to vandalise posters in the north expressing love for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appeared in court on Monday.

The posters, which read ‘Love Erdogan’, had appeared around the north in March 2021 in response to a billboard in New York reading ‘Stop Erdogan’.

They had been commissioned and paid for by Erdogan’s party’s Famagusta youth branch – a group which according to some legal opinions had been operating illegally in the north.

One of the posters was then defaced with the word ‘Diablo’, with the youth branch reporting the vandalism to the police.

The three activists were then arrested, though CCTV footage from the area surrounding the billboard showed that none of them were present when it was defaced.

“When it was revealed through camera recordings that we did not carry out the crime, we were accused of conspiring to commit it,” Erkan Cavus, one of the three, said.

They were apparently told, “you had plans to do it, even if you did not do it.”

In court on Monday, the case was postponed until April 24.