Turkey: court orders release of cartoonist accused of insulting President Erdogan
Dogan Pehlevan is released but banned from traveling abroad. It is his second current trial in Turkey; the first is against the magazine where he works for allegedly publishing a caricature of Mohammed.
Turkish television covers Pehlevanz's case.
Cartoonist Dogan Pehlevan was released, at least until he must sit in the dock to face charges that he insulted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
This was reported by the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA) group, which detailed that a court granted freedom under judicial control to the cartoonist, who will have to report once a week to the authorities. He is also banned from traveling abroad.
Pehlevan was remanded in custody pending trial. According to Amnesty International, he was accused of insulting Erdogan in two messages posted on X in 2019 and 2024.
Pehlevan denied at a hearing on Tuesday having an account on that platform. "As someone who writes and draws, I don’t feel the need to express myself on social media," he assured the court via video conference, the MLSA reported. "The tone of those posts is completely unlike mine."
In July Pehlevan was jailed along with three others in another case, according to AFP. That time the satirical magazine LeMan, where he works, was accused of having published a cartoon of Muhammad.
The magazine has always denied any link between the drawings of a character named Muhamed and the Prophet Muhammad. The other three employees were released and last week a court ordered the release of Pehlevan for that case, pending trial. The next hearing is scheduled for May 5.
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