Turkish man gets prison sentence after filing complaint against Erdoğan

A Turkish court has sentenced a man to 10 months in prison over “insulting” President Erdoğan after he filed a complaint against the latter. He was under house arrest for 18 months.

Tuesday February 18 2025 10:27 pm

Duvar English

A Mersin court sentenced a Turkish citizen, Oktay Avcu, to 10 months in prison after he filed a complaint against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, ANKA News Agency reported on Feb. 18.

Accordingly, Avcu filed a criminal complaint against Erdoğan during the 2023 election campaign period over the videos that the latter showed at his rallies, which he later said were montages.

Some of these videos depicted as if the outlawed PKK supported main opposition’s presidential candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.

After submitting his complaint to the prosecutor's office, Avcu was detained by police officers in the courthouse corridors on the alleged charge of “insulting the President” in some of his statements.

Avcu was under house arrest for 18 months.

Mersin 21st Criminal Court of First Instance sentenced him to 10 months in prison.

Avcu has brought the verdict to the appeals court, saying that he had already been under house arrest for 18 months.

“Those who ignore the law should fight with their conscience for a lifetime. I am the first citizen in the history of law to receive a prison sentence for filing a criminal complaint, and my country is the first country,” he said.

A tool commonly deployed by Ankara to reprimand critics of the government, “insult” charges often concern comments about the president.

In October 2021, the ECHR ruled that the crime of “insulting the president” was a violation of basic human rights and freedom of speech. It fined Turkey and told the country to change the law and pay recompense to those charged.

Despite the ruling, the Turkish judiciary continues to sentence people over these charges to suppress the opposition.