22-year jail term sought for Turkish director over movie showing Erdogan’s execution

Turkish prosecutors are seeking 22,5-year jail sentences for Turkish producer Ali Avcı over a movie trailer that shows the moments before the apparent execution of Turkish autocratic President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Avcı was detained by police on July 13, 2017 at his house hours after the release of the trailer for Uyanış [Awakening]. He is accused of being a supporter of the US-based Turkish-Muslim scholar Fethullah Gülen.

Uyanış’s trailer features the killing of Erdoğan’s family — including his wife Emine and his son Bilal — in their house in the Kısıklı neigborhood of İstanbul by putchists while a general holds a gun to Erdoğan’s head as he prays.

Uyanış is a drama about the early life of Erdoğan focusing on his childhood in İstanbul, his political career as the mayor of İstanbul Municipality from 1994 to 1998, and his short imprisonment in 1999 and his presidency.

Turkey survived a controversial military coup attempton July 15, 2016 that killed 249 people. Immediately after the putsch, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government along with Turkey’s autocratic President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement.

Fethullah Gülen, who inspired the movement, strongly denied having any role in the failed coup and called for an international investigation into it, but President Erdoğan — calling the coup attempt “a gift from God” — and the government initiated a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting them in custody.

Turkey has suspended or dismissed more than 150,000 judges, teachers, police and civil servants since July 15, 2016. Turkey’s Justice Ministry announced on July 13 that 50,510 people have been arrested and 169,013 have been the subject of legal proceedings on coup charges since the failed coup. (SCF with turkeypurge.com)

https://youtu.be/i4xuCNiKhog

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