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Turkish court hands down prison sentence to Armenian journalist over blasphemy
16:03 22.05.2013
An Istanbul court has sentenced Turkish-Armenian writer Sevan NiĊ?anyan
to 58 weeks in prison for an alleged insult to the Prophet Muhammad in
a blog post, the Hurriyet Daily News reports.
The prosecutor had been seeking one and a half years of jail time for
NiĊ?anyan on charges of `insulting the religious beliefs held by a
section of the society.'
The sentence cannot be converted to a financial penalty, but NiĊ?anyan
has the right to appeal.
He was charged with blasphemy after writing a blog post titled, `[We]
need to fight hate speech.'
`Making fun of an Arab leader who claimed he contacted Allah hundreds
of years ago and received political, financial and sexual benefits is
not hate speech,' NiĊ?anyan said in his post last year. `It is an
almost kindergarten-level test of what is called freedom of
expression.'
On May 22, the day of the sentencing, NiĊ?anyan retweeted his blog
post, writing, `Let's share the article that was sentenced to
13-and-a-half months at the Istanbul 10th Criminal Court for insulting
religious bla-bla.'
Last month, renowned Turkish pianist FazÄħl Say was also handed a
suspended 10-month prison sentence for blasphemy, after a case that
drew national and international reaction.
Say had been the focus of a legal battle after he retweeted several
lines, attributed to poet Omar Khayyam in April 2012, saying, `You say
its rivers will flow in.
http://www.armradio.am/en/2013/05/22/turkish-court-hands-down-prison-sentence-to-armenian-journalist-over-blasphemy/
16:03 22.05.2013
An Istanbul court has sentenced Turkish-Armenian writer Sevan NiĊ?anyan
to 58 weeks in prison for an alleged insult to the Prophet Muhammad in
a blog post, the Hurriyet Daily News reports.
The prosecutor had been seeking one and a half years of jail time for
NiĊ?anyan on charges of `insulting the religious beliefs held by a
section of the society.'
The sentence cannot be converted to a financial penalty, but NiĊ?anyan
has the right to appeal.
He was charged with blasphemy after writing a blog post titled, `[We]
need to fight hate speech.'
`Making fun of an Arab leader who claimed he contacted Allah hundreds
of years ago and received political, financial and sexual benefits is
not hate speech,' NiĊ?anyan said in his post last year. `It is an
almost kindergarten-level test of what is called freedom of
expression.'
On May 22, the day of the sentencing, NiĊ?anyan retweeted his blog
post, writing, `Let's share the article that was sentenced to
13-and-a-half months at the Istanbul 10th Criminal Court for insulting
religious bla-bla.'
Last month, renowned Turkish pianist FazÄħl Say was also handed a
suspended 10-month prison sentence for blasphemy, after a case that
drew national and international reaction.
Say had been the focus of a legal battle after he retweeted several
lines, attributed to poet Omar Khayyam in April 2012, saying, `You say
its rivers will flow in.
http://www.armradio.am/en/2013/05/22/turkish-court-hands-down-prison-sentence-to-armenian-journalist-over-blasphemy/