Journalist sentenced to prison for 'insulting' Erdoğan over tweets by website he wasn't working for
An Istanbul court has sentenced journalist Onur Emre Yağan to 14 months in prison on charges of “insulting” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for tweets posted from İleri Haber news website's official account in 2014 and 2015, even though Yağan was not working at the media outlet at the time of the posts.
Duvar English
AnIstanbul court on Nov. 5 sentenced Onur Emre Yağan, the formereditor-in-chief of İleri Haber news website, to 14 months and 17days in prison on charges of “insulting” President Recep TayyipErdoğan, online news portal Bianet reported.
Thecharges against Yağan concerned four Twitter posts made by the İleriHaber's official account in the years 2014 and 2015. Erdoğanwas included in the indictment as a “victim.”
Inthe indictment, it was claimed that “the posts exceeded the limitsof freedom of thought and expression and reached to the extent of aninsult.”
Inthe final hearing of the trial on Nov. 5, Yağanrejected all charges and stated that he did not work at the İleriHaber website at the time of the posts that are the subject of theaccusation. He said that he started working for İleri Haber in 2017and resigned in 2018.
“Theposts that are the subject of the accusation were not shared duringthe time period that I worked at İleri Haberi. They were shared in2014 and 2015. I was not even in Turkey when those posts were made,”Yağan said.
Despite Yağan's statement, the court sentenced him to 14 months and 17 days in prison and deferred the announcement of the verdict.