Appeals court overturns social media user's sentence for calling Bahçeli a 'dotard'

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An appeals court has overturned the sentence of a social media user who was charged with insulting the leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Devlet Bahçeli, by calling him a "dotard" on Facebook.

The Ankara Regional Court of Justice 6th Criminal Chamber reviewed the appeal and found that "the legal elements of the crime were not established."

Reference to the ECHR

The court referred to the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in its decision, stating that although the expression "he is in his dotage" was rude and impolite, it did not undermine the honor, dignity, and respectability of the plaintiff, the court concluded.

"Freedom of expression"

The court also stated that the expression in question falls within the scope of freedom of expression:

"When the content of the post is considered as a whole, it is clear that these words will be evaluated under the scope of freedom of expression, which is given a special importance in the Constitution, the European Convention on Human Rights and the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), therefore, it is understood that the defendant's conviction was made without taking into account the legal elements of the crime of insult and that it is necessary to rule for the acquittal of the accused in the appeal against the judgment of the court of first instance in accordance with Article 280/2 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CMK)."

What happened?

The post in question was a comment made by the accused on a news article on Sözcü newspaper's Facebook page about Bahçeli's statement: "Put him in a nursing home, he is in his dotage, he is going crazy."

The accused made the comment on a news article on Sözcü newspaper's Facebook page about a statement from Bahçeli, saying, "Put him in a nursing home, he is in his dotage, he is going crazy." Bahçeli filed a complaint against the defendant, resulting in a case of insult with a potential prison sentence of up to 2 years and 4 months.

In his defense at the trial, the social media user stated that "there is no insult in my statement. It is a generally used term in our region. It is a word used for those who forget where they put something, and it is also a term used medically."

His lawyer, Efkan Bolaç, also stated that there was not even a coarse expression in his client's words: "There is a clear difference between what the plaintiff said three or five years ago and what he says today, and my client's statements are about this. If the term 'dementia' had been used instead of 'losing his mind,' this case would not have been opened."

On June 2, 2021, the Ankara 25th Penal Court of First Instance found the accused guilty and ordered him to pay a judicial fine of 5,300 Turkish liras.

The appeals court, with its decision dated March 1, 2023, ruled that there was no element of crime in the accused's statements. (AS/VK)