69-year-old Turkish cartoonist sent to prison for 'insulting' Erdogan

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Turkish cartoonist Nuri Kurtcebe, known for his fierce criticism of the government, was sent to prison on Monday for a conviction of the crime of “insulting” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in his caricatures.

A penal court last year had sentenced the cartoonist, 69, to jail time of one year, two months, and 15 days over his drawings of Erdogan in 2015.

Gendarmerie arrested Kurtcebe a day earlier at a checkpoint in the northwestern city of Yalova.

Turkey is under an extended state of emergency since a botched coup attempt by a military clique in mid-2016 and the Erdogan administration has granted more powers to security forces, as well as the judiciary.

Lawyer Ahmet Erdem Akyuz, who was representing Kurtcebe pro bono, told privately-owned Dogan news agency that a higher court refused to review his client’s case.

The opposition in Turkey and rights watchdogs accuse the government of increasing authoritarianism and eroding freedom of expression.

Kurtcebe is among several other cartoonists who have faced trials and jail for insulting the President.

Musa Kart of daily Cumhuriyet has been grappling with multiple lawsuits by Erdogan’s lawyers since 2006.

Kart was one of the 12 media workers who received jail time of over 70 years in total in late April in a landmark case that sealed the fate of the country’s few remaining independent news outlets.

Hundreds of ordinary citizens, artists, singers, and politicians have become the target of judicial investigations, prosecution, and imprisonment for expressions courts deem insulting Erdogan.

Pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) lawmaker Ahmet Yildirim was banned from politics and ousted from the Parliament for having called Erdogan a “shoddy emperor” in a speech.

Earlier this year, Turkish authorities in the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir arrested a groom and promptly sent him to prison before his wedding for the said crime.

The conviction of a 13-year-old made headlines last year after he received a prison sentence of one year and nine months for posting a comment about Erdogan on Facebook under a video shared by the HDP.

Anti-terror police arrested the boy during a raid on his family’s home in Istanbul in 2016.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany