Four staff members of the Turkish satirical magazine LeMan were jailed pending trial on Wednesday on charges of “publicly insulting religious values” after being taken into police custody on Monday over a controversial cartoon, the BirGün daily reported.
Cartoonist Doğan Pehlivan, graphic designer Cebrail Okçu, managing director Zafer Aknar and company manager Ali Yavuz were transported on Wednesday to İstanbul’s Çağlayan Courthouse, where a judge ordered them remanded into custody pending trial.
According to a referral document sent by the prosecutor’s office, the cartoon published in LeMan included “provocative expressions and visuals” that could incite hatred and discrimination between different segments of society. The document also alleged that Pehlivan shared posts on social media insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, constituting an additional offense of “insulting the president.”
The magazine came under fire in Turkey on Monday evening due to its June 26 edition, which allegedly featured a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad, a claim the magazine denies.
The drawing showed two elderly figures, one labeled “Muhammad” and the other “Moses,” shaking hands mid-air above a war zone. According to LeMan, the cartoon was intended as a symbolic anti-war message, not as a depiction of the Prophet.
According to an official statement from the prosecutor’s office on Wednesday, prosecutors have also opened a financial investigation into the magazine.
The financial investigation under Article 160 of the Turkish Criminal Procedure Code seeks to assess possible monetary irregularities and determine whether any of the magazine’s staff members or companies affiliated with the magazine received financial support from foreign or domestic entities.
So far, prosecutors have issued detention warrants for six LeMan staff members, four of whom were detained on Monday evening and arrested on Wednesday. The two other staff members wanted on warrants are reportedly abroad.
The magazine categorically denied the allegation of publicly insulting religious values, with its editor-in-chief telling Agence France-Presse that the image had “nothing to do with the Prophet Muhammad.”
LeMan also apologized to “well-intentioned readers who feel hurt” but defended its work and rejected allegations that the cartoon was a depiction of Muhammad.
“The cartoonist wanted to portray the righteousness of the oppressed Muslim people by depicting a Muslim killed by Israel, and he never intended to insult religious values,” it said in a statement on X.
Riot police were deployed in İstanbul on Monday as hundreds of people protested against the publication. The protests continued on Tuesday despite a heavy police presence.
Meanwhile, Turkish authorities on Tuesday blocked access to the website and X account of LeMan following the controversy.
Publication of the image drew sharp condemnation from senior government officials and President Erdoğan, who denounced it as a “hate crime.”
Although there is no ban on it in the Islamic holy book, the Quran, the depiction of the Prophet Muhammad is deemed highly offensive by most Muslims. This prohibition stems from a broader Islamic discouragement of visual representations of living beings, especially prophets, to prevent idolatry and to maintain reverence for Allah and his messengers.
