Prison sentence sought for our former Managing Editor Cem Şimşek

The lawsuit filed against Cem Şimşek, former Managing Editor of our newspaper Evrensel, on the charge of "insulting the President" due to the news titled "German cartoonists drew Erdogan badly" was postponed to 8th July. Announcing his notion, the prosecutor asked for a prison sentence for Şimşek.

The trial continued today at the Bakırköy 27th Criminal Court. At the hearing, the prosecutor announced his notion and asked for a prison sentence for Şimşek. The prosecutor demanded that Şimşek be punished for "insulting the President publicly".

The court gave additional time to Şimşek and his lawyer, Devrim Avcı, to prepare the final defenses against the notion.

The next hearing will be held on 8 July.

WHAT HAD HAPPENED?

Four years later, an investigation was initiated with the allegation of "insulting Erdogan" due to the news titled "German cartoonists drew Erdogan badly" published in Evrensel newspaper and Evrensel.net on August 2nd, 2015.

The caricature which was in the news article and published in various other magazines, criticised Erdogan and the AKP government for their stance on ISIS, as well as, the ISIS massacres that took place in Turkey.

The investigation turned into a lawsuit in 2020 and Şimşek was asked for a prison sentence of 4 years and 8 months.