Şener Levent, Editor-in-Chief of the Cyprus-based daily Avrupa, who was charged with “insulting Erdoğan” (Article 299 of the Turkish Penal Code) for his article titled “Kurds and us”, was sentenced to 11 months and 20 days in prison in Turkey. Levent, who said he was tried in absentia, announced that he did not recognise the verdict. A lawsuit was filed against the journalist in both Cyprus and Turkey with the same accusation due to a cartoon he published before; while the trial in Cyprus resulted in acquittal, he was sentenced to 1 year in prison by Ankara 63rd Criminal Court of First Instance and the sentence was converted into a judicial fine of 9 thousand TL.
13.09.2023
bianet.org