A Turkish court has ordered comedian Deniz Göktaş jailed again on charges of insulting the president and inciting hatred, reversing a decision that had approved his release on those counts only days earlier, the Anka news agency reported.
Göktaş had remained in prison after Friday’s release order because prosecutors immediately brought a new accusation of “praising crime and criminals” based on the same stand-up show and secured a separate ruling for his continued detention.
With the latest decision, he is now being held on three counts stemming from remarks in his 90-minute “Ölü Deniz” (Dead Sea) performance.
The İstanbul 61st Criminal Court of First Instance on Friday had ordered Göktaş released pending trial on charges of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and publicly inciting hatred and hostility.
Prosecutors challenged the ruling, prompting the İstanbul 28th High Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant on August 31. Göktaş, who was already in the Karatepe High-Security Prison in northwestern Turkey on the separate charge, appeared at a hearing by video link.
Göktaş told the court that the remarks in his shows and social media posts were political satire and that he had not intended to insult anyone, according to Anka.
He also said he had voluntarily returned to Turkey despite knowing about the investigation, arguing that this showed he posed no flight risk.
His lawyers asked the court to reject the prosecutor’s appeal, saying their client had neither attempted to flee nor had any opportunity to tamper with evidence.
The court unanimously ordered Göktaş detained separately on both counts, citing what it called evidence supporting reasonable suspicion, the potential sentences, the state of the evidence and an alleged flight risk. His lawyers may appeal the decision to the İstanbul 29th High Criminal Court.
The latest ruling followed an extraordinary sequence on Friday in which Göktaş was ordered released after 56 days in pretrial detention but was brought before another court by video link before prison officials had prepared his release documents.
Prosecutors accused him of praising crime and criminals over a passage in the same show in which he joked about how inexpensive and easy it was to hire a contract killer in Turkey. The routine referred to the Daltonlar, an organized crime group linked to killings and armed attacks.
The İstanbul 4th Criminal Court of Peace said the remarks praised the group, legitimized its crimes and made criminal services easier to access. It ordered Göktaş jailed pending trial, citing flight risk and the possibility of evidence tampering.
Göktaş denied praising the gang, saying the joke was intended as criticism of crime, violence and Turkey’s growing impoverishment.
His lawyers said they were not notified of Friday’s hearing and that Göktaş was represented by a bar-appointed attorney. They accused prosecutors of introducing the new allegation minutes after the release ruling and outside regular office hours to prevent him from leaving prison.
Göktaş, 32, was detained at İstanbul Airport on July 2 after voluntarily returning from a trip abroad and was jailed the following day.
Images shared publicly showed him being led away in handcuffs. He has since been held at the Karatepe prison, one of Turkey’s high-security facilities commonly described by critics as “pit-type” prisons because of their architecture and extensive use of solitary confinement.
The investigation was launched over remarks in “Ölü Deniz,” which Göktaş posted on YouTube on June 24. The show had attracted 12.7 million views when a court blocked access to it in Turkey on July 9.
His arrest prompted protests from rights groups, opposition parties and fellow performers, who accused the government of criminalizing satire and using pretrial detention as a form of punishment.
This article is republished from Turkish Minute.
