Investigations were filed against 68,827 people between the years 2014 and 2017 in accordance with Article 299 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) regulating the charge of “insulting the President.”12,839 of those investigations were turned into lawsuits. Prof. Dr. Yaman Akdeniz described the situation as a “calamity.” “The system is entirely based on penalisation and silencing. The slightest criticism concludes with criminal prosecution,” Akdeniz said.
According to the data shared by Akdeniz, 3,414 verdicts of conviction were issued within the lawsuits filed; 1697 cases were concluded with acquittal. The increase in the number of investigations and filed lawsuits also draws the attention in this respect. There were 132 lawsuits related to the law article in 2014, the year Erdoğan was elected President of Republic for the first time. This number continued as 953 in 2015, 4187 in 2016 and 6033 in 2017. There were also 682 investigations in 2014 due to the same charge, continued with 7216 investigations in 2015, 38254 in 2016 and 20539 in 2017.
11.12.2018
cumhuriyet.com.tr