Jailed cartoonist Melih Gürler was given a 10 month prison sentence by a court over his allegedly insulting expressions in a letter he wrote to jailed HDP Co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş who stay in a prison in Edirne province, according to a report in Görülmüştür.org.
Cartoonist Gürler who has been jailed in Bafra Type T Closed Prison in Samsun prison was given more prison sentence by a court for allegedly “insulting Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ” in a letter he wrote to jailed Demirtaş. Gürler was given 10 months prison sentence, 980 TL fine as bail for Minister Bozdağ’s lawyer, and 11 TL fine as court costs.
Previously, caroonist Gürler were sentenced to 1 year and 6 months in jaile for “insulting President Erdoğan” in a letter he wanted to send from the prison to an Ankara address with the name of Abdül Müttalip.
Turkey is the leading jailer of journalists in the world. The Stockholm Center for Freedom (SCF) has documented that 264 journalists are now in jails as of May 27, most in pre-trial detention languishing in notorious Turkish prisons without even a conviction. Of those in Turkish prisons, 241 are arrested pending trial, only 23 journalists remain convicted and serving time in Turkish prisons. An outstanding detention warrants remain for 105 journalists who live in exile or remain at large in Turkey.
Detaining tens of thousands of people over alleged links to the movement, the government also closed down more than 180 media outlets after the coup attempt.
June 11, 2017
