Journalist Barış İnce Fined 10,620 TL for Insulting Erdoğan

The trial of BirGün newspaper Editor-in-Chief Barış İnce at Istanbul 2^nd Criminal Court of First Instance for “insulting then PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and son Bilal Erdoğan” was concluded yesterday (April 16).

Judge Abdurrahman Orkun Dağ found İnce guilty of “ascribing to a concrete action or fact that could offend persons’ honor, reputation and respectability” as per article 125/1 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK).

İnce’s sentence was increased, as it was “committed openly”, and also because “the same crime was committed against a person more than once”. The court also declined from abating the sentence as it noted that İnce was not seen to “show regret”.

Barış İnce spoke to bianet about his headline news piece titled “Turns out they built double roads in their pockets” dated March 3^rd, for which he was on trial: “Everybody knows about this corruption, nobody denies it. The corruption was hushed up by appointing prosecutors and police officers, and we, journalists, are being charged for writing about corruption. The aim of cases like this one is to prevent journalists from reporting the news. This headline [that I had chosen] too is a political criticism and more importantly it is based on concrete facts.”

His defense is a whole other suit

Another libel suit was filed against İnce for the plea of defense he submitted to the court on 21 October 2014.

In İnce’s acrostic defense titled “My Defense” which was also published in BirGün newspaper, the first letters in each row spelled out “Hırsız Tayyip” [Thief Tayyip]. İnce is facing prison time up to 4 years 8 months for insulting President Erdoğan in his defense. The trial will take place on June 2^nd. (AS/PU)

Click here to read this article in Turkish.