Doğan Pehlevan Sentenced for ‘Insulting’ Turkish President
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Turkish cartoonist Doğan Pehlevan received a 11 months and 20 day suspended sentence for “insulting the president” with a tweet. His attorneys argued that the prosecution did not positively prove that the account even belonged to the cartoonist, nor did the tweet cross lines into an insult.
The Istanbul 36th Criminal Court of First Instance rejected the defense and sided with the prosecutors. Sentencing has been deferred to a later date.
The “insult” case for Pehlevan is in addition to another ongoing case of “inciting the public to hatred and hostility or degrading the public” for drawing the Prophet Muhammad. That case, involving four other journalists of LeMan magazine, is still working its way through the system with the next hearing next week.
LeMan claims the cartoon was a critique of Israel’s bombing of Gaza and denied that it portrayed religious figures.
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