Ankara - A famous Turkish singer and
actress has been sentenced to 10 months in prison for insulting
President Tayyip Erdogan during a performance in 2016, the
Hurriyet newspaper said on Thursday.
Singer Zuhal Olcay was accused of changing the lyrics of one
of her songs by substituting Erdogan's name into it and making
an insulting hand gesture while singing, Hurriyet said.
Video from the performance showed Olcay changing her song's
lyrics to read "Recep Tayyip Erdogan, it's all empty, it's all a
lie, life will end one day and you'll say 'I had a dream',"
Hurriyet said.
In her testimony, Olcay rejected the accusations, saying she
had used Erdogan's name because it fit the rhyme scheme and had
no "ulterior or insulting motive". She said the hand gesture was
aimed at an audience member.
Olcay was previously fined 10,620 lira ($2,708) for
"insulting a public servant" in 2010, according to the state-run
Anadolu agency.
Insulting the president is a crime punishable by up to four
years in prison in Turkey.
Lawyers for Erdogan, who has dominated Turkish politics for
more than a decade, have filed more than 1,800 cases against
people including cartoonists, a former Miss Turkey winner and
school children on accusations of insulting him.
Enes Kanter, a Turkish basketball player in the U.S. NBA
team New York Knicks, is also standing trial in absentia for
insulting Erdogan.
Following the 2016 failed coup, Erdogan said he would drop
outstanding suits, in a one-off gesture, but several new cases
have since emerged.
Rights groups and some Western governments have voiced
concern that Turkey is sliding toward authoritarianism,
criticising a crackdown which saw some 150 000 people sacked or
suspended from their jobs and more than 50,000 jailed pending
trial on suspicion of links to the failed coup.
The government says such measures are necessary to ensure
stability and defend Turkey from multiple security threats.