Cartoonist Doğan Pehlevan, already standing trial over a cartoon accused of insulting religious values, has been indicted again for allegedly “publicly insulting the president,” the Cumhuriyet daily reported.
The İstanbul Public Prosecutor’s Office claimed that posts from Pehlevan’s social media account contained insults directed at President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The prosecutor is seeking a prison sentence of up to four years, eight months.
Pehlevan denied the charges, saying he does not have a social media account and that as a cartoonist for a well-known magazine, it is possible that someone created an account in his name. He also said he was unaware of the posts in question.
Pehlevan is already on trial for his cartoon published in the June 26 issue of the LeMan satirical weekly, which featured a cartoon allegedly depicting the Prophet Muhammad and Prophet Moses. He is currently in pretrial detention and faces up to seven-and-a-half years in prison on charges of “repeatedly inciting [people] to hatred and enmity and openly insulting religious values.”
Other staff members of LeMan — graphic designer Cebrail Okçu, managing director Zafer Aknar, manager Ali Yavuz, editor-in-chief Mehmet Tuncay Akgün and managing editor Aslan Özdemir — are also under indictment. Okçu, Aknar, Yavuz and Özdemir were released pending trial, while an arrest warrant was issued for Akgün, who is currently in France.
The magazine said the illustration was a political critique of Israel’s bombing of Gaza, not a depiction of religious figures. Its staff have vigorously denied any link between an illustration published in the magazine and Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.
Press freedom advocates warn that the case illustrates a broader pattern of the repression of independent media in Turkey, where journalists often face prosecution for critical reporting or satire.
Turkey, which has been suffering from a poor record of freedom of the press for years, ranks 159th among 180 countries in the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) 2025 World Press Freedom Index.
