The number of the people who have been prosecuted for insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has reached 250, a crime for which only one person was tried under the previous four presidents, according to the Sözcü daily.
On Friday, two people were detained by the police in the town of Birecik in southeastern Şanlıurfa province and accused of insulting the president.
During the tenure of the previous four presidents, only one person was brought to trial on the charge of insulting the president, then-President Abdullah Gül, according to the recent Sözcü report.
The defendant was sentenced to eight months in prison in January of this year, but his sentence was deferred. The court ruled that it would drop the charge if the suspect did not commit another crime in the next five years.
While some of the 250 who have been accused of insulting Erdoğan since his election to the presidency in 2014 have been released pending trial, others have remained in jail until their trial. Some have been sentenced to jail time while others paid fines.
Several high school and university students are among those who have been charged, like Emin A. (16), who was released after being held for two days in Konya in December 2014 and whose trial is still pending. Another, H.U.C., was detained in January 2014 in Antalya, released pending trial and ultimately sentenced to eight months in prison in February 2015. The court suspended H.U.C.’s sentence.
The varied profile of those accused also includes lawyers, workers, members of political parties, and several journalists.
Article 299 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) sentences anyone convicted of insulting the president to a jail term between one and four years, though judges have some discretion and may also commute the jail sentence to a fine.
Feyzi İşbaşaran, a former Justice and Development Party (AK Party) deputy was fined TL 10,600 on Nov. 17 for insulting Erdoğan on social media.