Fashion Designer Şansal Acquitted of Tweets, Sentenced to Jail over Video

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Fashion designer Barbaros has been sentenced to 6 months and 20 days in prison on charge of “overtly insulting Turkish nation and the Republic of Turkey” due to his statements on the video he posted on the new year night.

On the other hand, Şansal was acquitted of the charge of “explicitly insulting a section of the society based on religious and denominational differences”.

International travel ban imposed on Şansal was also lifted.

What happened?

Fashion designer Barbaros Şansal had shared a video on social media saying "Are you still celebrating the new year while so many journalists are under arrest, so many children are being harassed and raped, there is so much fraud, bribery and bigots share crap on the streets together with religious annunciators".

Stating that he shared the video in Northern Cyrpus, Şansal had drawn some circles' reaction for saying "I hope you die in your own shit Turkey".

Deported from Northern Cyprus due to his social media sharings following Reina attack, subjected to lynch attempt in Turkey and detained, Barbaros Şansal was detained following prosecution questioning on charge of "inciting people to hate and hostility" on January 4, 2017, and arrested on February 3, 2017. (AS/TK)