Columnist Enver Aysever briefly detained

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Enver Aysever, a columnist for daily Cumhuriyet, gave his statement at a police station as part of an investigation launched against him over a comic that he had shared on Twitter. Afterwards, he was detained as there was a detention warrant issued by the Çerkezköy Penal Judgeship of Peace.

As reported by Cumhuriyet, after Aysever was taken into custody, he was first taken to the Şehit Hayrettin Yıldırım Örnek Police Station, then to a hospital for the medical check. The columnist was referred to the İstanbul Anadolu Courthouse in Kartal to give his statement afterwards.

Özge Demir, the attorney of Enver Aysever, said that they were not informed about the details of the charges brought against him.

According to the attorney, the Çerkezköy Penal Judgeship of Peace charged the columnist with "provoking the public to hatred and hostility" due to a tweet that he posted on March 20, 2020 and there was a detention warrant against him to take his statement within this framework.

After giving his statement at the courthouse, Enver Aysever has been released from detention. Making a statement after his release, Aysever has said, "First, a character assassination is committed and a button is pushed somewhere. I think they are connected. If I had not gone there to give my statement, they would have raided my house and detained me tomorrow."

What happened?

An investigation was launched against Cumhuriyet columnist Enver Aysever on charge of "degrading religious values held by a segment of society" on the grounds that he shared a comic drawn by cartoonist Mehmet Birol on his social media account on March 20, 2020.

Aysever was indicted as part of the investigation carried out by the İstanbul Anadolu Chief Public Prosecutor's Office. The indictment demanded that Aysever be sentenced to 9 months to 1 year, 6 months in prison on the offense charged. (HA/SD)