A Turkish court has ordered the release of LeMan satirical magazine cartoonist Doğan Pehlevan under judicial supervision in a case that had kept him behind bars since July on charges of insulting the president, Turkish Minute reported, citing the Cumhuriyet daily.
Pehlevan was among the six of the magazine’s staff who were jailed over a cartoon in the June 26 issue of LeMan deemed insulting to religious values.
The LeMan cartoon showed two men named Muhammad and Moses greeting each other above a bombed city. The illustration sparked outrage among religious and conservative circles in İstanbul and attracted condemnation from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and senior government officials.
Last Friday an İstanbul court ordered Pehlevan’s release pending trial on the charges of “inciting hatred and enmity,” but he remained jailed on a separate charge of insulting President Erdoğan.
He appeared before a judge again on Tuesday, when prosecutors requested his release under judicial supervision. The court granted the request, allowing him to leave prison.
Pehlevan faces up to four years, eight months in the ongoing insult case, which stems from two social media posts he shared on X, in 2019 and 2024, according to Amnesty International.
Following the online backlash in late June, a group attacked the magazine’s İstanbul office. No action was taken against the assailants, but authorities opened an investigation into the magazine instead.
Separately, a court ordered the confiscation of LeMan’s June 26 issue and imposed a nationwide ban on access to the magazine’s website and X account.
The magazine said the illustration was a political critique of Israel’s bombing of Gaza, not a depiction of religious figures. Its staff has vigorously denied any link between an illustration published in the magazine and Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.
On July 2 Pehlevan, managing editor Zafer Aknar, graphic designer Cebrail Okçu and business manager Ali Yavuz were arrested. A detention warrant was later issued for editor-in-chief Aslan Özdemir, who was abroad.
Four of the detainees, Aknar, Özdemir, Okçu and Yavuz, were released on September 26. Pehlevan remained imprisoned because of the separate insult case.
In the November 14 hearing, Pehlevan told the court via video link that he had not intended to incite hostility with the cartoon. “For five months, my child, my wife, my family and I have been victims,” he said, according to the rights group MLSA.
Press freedom advocates warn that the case illustrates a broader pattern of repression against independent media in Turkey, where journalists often face prosecution for critical reporting or satire.
Turkey ranks 159th out of 180 countries in the 2025 World Press Freedom Index, published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in May.
