Turkish authorities have arrested the cafeteria manager of the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper for insulting the president after he said he would not serve tea to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, one of the manager’s lawyers said.

Şenol Buran, who runs the canteen at the Istanbul office of Cumhuriyet, was taken into custody after police raided his home late on Saturday, Özgür Urfa said. The newspaper is among the few still critical of the government.

Insulting the president is a crime punishable by up to four years in prison in Turkey.

Lawyers for Erdoğan, who has dominated Turkish politics for more than a decade, have filed more than 1,800 cases against people including cartoonists, a former Miss Turkey winner and schoolchildren on accusations of insulting him.

After a failed coup in July, the president said he would drop the outstanding suits in a one-off gesture of national unity.

Buran has been jailed pending trial and a court date has not been announced. The justice ministry would need to approve the launch of a court case.

The cafeteria manager was detained after a police officer providing security for the newspaper said he heard Buran use a derogatory term to describe Erdoğan and say he would refuse to serve the president tea if he ever visited the establishment, his lawyer said.

According to court documents obtained by Reuters, Buran has denied using an insulting term, while confirming that he had said he would refuse to serve Erdoğan tea. He also said he had a dispute with the police officer two years ago.

A judge at an Istanbul court on Sunday ordered Buran’s arrest pending trial, citing “strong suspicion of crime committed” and saying the suspect might otherwise put pressure on witnesses, the documents showed.

Cumhuriyet has confirmed Buran was arrested.

Ten staff including the newspaper’s editor in chief and senior executives were jailed in November pending trial on suspicion of crimes on behalf of Kurdish militants and the US-based cleric Fethullah Gülen, who is accused of instigating the failed coup on 15 July.

The newspaper’s previous editor, Can Dündar, was jailed last year for publishing state secrets involving Turkey’s support for Syrian rebels. He was later released and is now overseas.

Since the coup attempt, more than 110,000 people have been sacked or suspended and 40,000 jailed pending trial. Western allies and rights groups say they fear Erdoğan is using the attempted overthrow to crush dissent.

Turkish authorities last week froze the assets of 54 journalists who have been under investigation – and some already jailed – over suspected links to what Ankara calls the “Gülenist Terror Organisation”, according to the Hürriyet newspaper.

Gülen has said the charges against him are false and has condemned the attempted coup.