Turkish YouTuber sentenced to 4 years in prison over parody video said to 'encourage drug use'

A Turkish YouTuber dubbed Porçay was sentenced to four years and two months in prison for "encouraging drug use" in a parody video about Turkish rappers. "How can someone get punished for encouraging drug use when they're mocking the glorification of drugs in music?" his attorney said.

Friday February 26 2021 10:37 am

Duvar English

A Turkish YouTuber named Porçay was sentenced to four years and two months in prison on the grounds that a parody video he created about a Turkish rapper "encouraged drug use."

The 2018 video titled "I Smoke Weed" was about Turkish rapper Ezhel, who often talks about cannabis use in his music, and migrated to Germany after numerous run-ins with the law in Turkey.

"Porçay was sentenced to prison for a parody video where he 'tried to show the side of substance use that is not shown in rap music,'" said the video creator's attorney Ali Gül. "This was written in the description."

The attorney has been trying to prove to the court since 2018 that the whole video was a parody, he said, adding that the sentence is unacceptable "even under the conditions of modern-day Turkey."

"How can someone get punished for encouraging drug use when they're mocking the glorification of drugs in music?" Gül said.

Meanwhile, rapper Ezhel whom Porçay was talking about in the video in question, shared a post about the YouTuber's sentence and said "words are not enough" to describe the situation.

The YouTuber said that he still hadn't processed the sentencing, and that he would talk about the legal process in a video he will make soon.