Turkey Seeks 11-Year Sentence for Journalist Over ‘Insults’ to President, Cabinet Ministers
A Turkish prosecutor’s office seeks an 11-year prison term for television journalist Sedef Kabaş, on charges of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and two cabinet ministers, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu and Transportation Minister Adil Karaismailoğlu, Turkish media reported on Friday. Kabaş was jailed last month after being accused of insulting Erdogan, a crime that by itself could result in a one-to-four-year prison sentence. She got into hot water with the Turkish government over a proverb she cited during a political discussion on opposition TV channel Tele 1 and repeated on Twitter, which was interpreted as disrespectful to the president. The Coalition for Women in Journalism and 37 press freedom organizations and journalists have called on Turkey to release Kabaş. In 2015, she was briefly detained and later tried and acquitted on charges of “targeting a public servant tasked with fighting against terrorism” which could have brought a five-year prison sentence – also over a tweet. Reuters reports that, according to official data, 160,169 people have been investigated for the crime of insulting Erdoğan since he took office in 2014; 35,507 cases were filed in the courts, resulting 12,881 convictions.
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