A Turkish court on Tuesday sentenced Kurdish journalist Hakkı Boltan to more than one year in prison in a retrial on charges of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, refusing to suspend the sentence.
According to the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA), the Diyarbakır 12th First Criminal court acquitted Boltan of a separate charge of insulting a public official and released him pending appeal.
His lawyer said the statements in question were protected by freedom of expression and amounted to criticism rather than a criminal offense.
The retrial followed a 2021 ruling by the same court that sentenced Boltan to more than two years in prison on separate charges of insulting the president and a public official, also without suspension.
That earlier verdict was later overturned by the Diyarbakır Regional Court of Justice, which said convicting him on two separate counts for the same remarks had resulted in an excessive sentence.
The case stems from a 2016 public statement Boltan made as chair of the Free Journalists Association about the death of Rohat Aktaş, editor-in-chief of the Kurdish-language Azadiya Welat daily, who was killed in Cizre after being trapped in a basement during security operations under curfew.
In that statement, Boltan held President Erdoğan and then-Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu responsible for the violence in Cizre, remarks that later formed the basis of the prosecution.
In Turkey, thousands of people are investigated, prosecuted or convicted each year for insulting president, a criminal offense under Article 299 of the Turkish Penal Code. Those found guilty can face up to four years in prison, with sentences increased by one-sixth if the offense is committed through media.
The law has long been criticized by human rights and press freedom advocates, who say it is used to prosecute journalists, politicians and ordinary citizens for expressing views critical of the president or even satirizing him indirectly.
According to Expression Interrupted, a press freedom monitoring group, 26 journalists are currently behind bars in Turkey. The country’s deteriorating media landscape was further pointed out in the 2025 World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), where it was ranked 159th out of 180 nations.
