An Istanbul court on Wednesday rejected a prosecutor’s request to release five staff members of the LeMan satirical weekly who are on trial over a cartoon alleged to have insulted religious values, the Cumhuriyet daily reported.
The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office filed charges that were accepted by the 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance in İstanbul. Although the prosecutor argued that the defendants could be released under judicial supervision, the court ordered their continued detention, citing flight risk and an outstanding arrest warrant.
The first hearing in the case is scheduled for November 14.
The charges stem from LeMan’s June 26 issue, which featured a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad and the Prophet Moses.
The indictment seeks prison sentences of up to four-and-a-half years for graphic designer Cebrail Okçu, managing director Zafer Aknar, manager Ali Yavuz, editor-in-chief Mehmet Tuncay Akgün and managing editor Aslan Özdemir, on charges of “incitement to hatred and enmity and openly insulting religious values.”
Cartoonist Doğan Pehlevan faces up to seven-and-a-half years in prison for allegedly committing the offense “repeatedly,” with prosecutors citing a November 1, 2024, social media post about Islam as evidence.
Editor-in-chief Akgün, who is currently in France, is being tried in absentia under an arrest warrant that had already been issued.
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, which has been suffering from a poor record of freedom of the press for years, ranks 159th among 180 countries in the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) 2025 World Press Freedom Index.
