A Turkish court on Tuesday (May 31) found a former Miss Turkey beauty queen guilty of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on social media, handing her a suspended sentence of over one year in jail.
The Istanbul court sentenced model Merve Buyuksarac, 27, to one year and two months in prison for "publicly insulting" Mr Erdogan in a satirical poem she posted on her Instagram account, the Dogan news agency reported.
The punishment has been suspended, it added, without giving further details.
The "Master's Poem" - which was shared by the model while Mr Erdogan was serving as prime minister - criticises the Turkish strongman with verses adapted from the national anthem.
Mr Erdogan, who was elected president in August 2014 after serving as prime minister for more than a decade, is often called "Buyuk Usta" (the Big Master).
Mr Hatice Ozay, Mr Erdogan's lawyer, told the court that the model's posts on social media cannot be considered criticism but rather was an "attack against my client's personal rights".
Buyuksarac won the Miss Turkey competition in 2006 and has since worked as a model as well as appearing on reality TV shows.
After being briefly detained in January 2015, she admitted to sharing the poem which had been printed in a Turkish satirical magazine but said she did not want to insult the president.
A string of journalists as well as ordinary citizens end up in court for insulting or slandering Mr Erdogan, who is accused by critics of being increasingly authoritarian.
The number of cases has swelled after Mr Erdogan moved to the presidency in 2014 because in the past his predecessors rarely used the practice.
Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said in March that almost 2,000 people in Turkey have been prosecuted for insulting Mr Erdogan since he became president.
Ironically, Mr Erdogan was himself sent to jail in 1999 for reciting, while mayor of Istanbul, a nationalist and Islamist-tinged poem that the authorities of the time deemed was guilty of "inciting religious hatred".
straitstimes.com
He should come and take lessons from Bubu...lol
He is also suing German comedian for a joke made on him...na wah oh..
Action man (President).
ReplyDeleteThat means Jona and Bubu for don sue 50 million people for this country.
ReplyDeleteThey better brace up and behave like we sha
Edorgan don't like crtisisim of any kind.
ReplyDeleteNai b Sey if na Naija almost everybody go don dey jail.
DeleteTouchy old buffoon!
ReplyDeleteWhich smelly bubu?
ReplyDeleteHe should come and take lessons from GEJ, that people insulted him and his wife.
People don't insult that clueless idiot called Buhari. Some coward are scared of the idiot.
See Buhari and his family adding weight, so na hungry dey worry all of them before
Idiot! GEJ was abused, Buhari is currently abused a lot. Are you blind or deaf? Which weight have they added? Were they poor before? A family of slim people have added weight. I don' comment so much,but your stupidity is hard to ignore!
DeletePoverty is a disease o.
DeleteLepa shandy your last sentence is baaaaaadddddd. No let them catch you oooooo 😀😀😀😀😀
DeleteBut you just insulted him..
DeleteCatch her for where
DeleteAre we in a Military regime?
At some point, these Presidents would have to grow up. It's actually OK to ignore and yes, they should borrow a leaf from PMB
ReplyDeleteMuslims and their troubles
ReplyDeleteThis is serious
ReplyDeleteThank God is not this country, the number of insults that baba, jona and mamaP got, is unmentionable lol....
ReplyDeleteThis president is truly hated
ReplyDelete