Decision for Citizen Arrested for Insulting the President

A citizen named Vedat Şorli was detained due to his Facebook posts on social media, and was sentenced to 11 months and 20 days in prison for insulting the President. Thereupon, the citizen, who made an individual application to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), encountered a partially surprising result.

The ECtHR ruled that the decision of the court in Turkey was a “violation of freedom of expression”. However, the court found the Republic of Turkey unfair and decided to pay 7,500 euros to a citizen named Vedat Şorli. In the decision of the ECtHR, it was stated that senior executives could be the subject of criticism on social media and that no privilege could be developed for those at these levels.

Requested to change the relevant law

In the statements made by the ECtHR, it was stated that the crime of “Insulting the President” in Article 299 of the Turkish Penal Code is incompatible with the freedom of expression, and this incompatibility should be harmonized with the case law of the ECtHR. In other words, the court requested that this decision be reviewed and even changed.

With the decision regarding the case of a citizen named Vedat Şorli, it was underlined that the member states of the Council of Europe do not impose prison sentences for such cases, but such a practice exists in some countries such as Turkey and Azerbaijan. Stating that this was worrisome, the officials argued that the decisions and the lawsuits should be reconsidered.