An Ankara court on Tuesday handed down a 21- month
suspended jail sentence to an editor of an English -
language Turkish daily newspaper after convicting him
of “ insulting ” President Recep Tayyip Erdoðan.
The Ankara penal court said Today ’s Zaman editor -in-
chief Bülent Keneþ was guilty of “ insulting ” Erdoðan in
a tweet, which implied Erdoðan ’s late mother would
have been ashamed of him had she lived to see what
he was doing to Turkey , Agence France - Presse had
reported .
Erdoðan’ s mother Tenzile died in 2011 and the then-
prime minister had grieved publicly for his loss .
The tweet was posted in July 2014 , when Erdoðan was
serving his last months as prime minister just before he
became the country ’ s first president elected by popular
vote in August 2014 .
In his defense, Keneþ argued he was protected by
Turkish law on freedom of speech and noted he did not
even indicate in the tweet that he was referring to
Erdoðan.
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