Dilruba Kayserilioğlu, a woman in İzmir, received a suspended prison sentence of 11 months and 20 days for “insulting the president” during a vox pop in August. Her comments criticizing the government’s blocking of Instagram access had led to her arrest and brief imprisonment.
During the vox pop, Kayserilioğlu expressed dissatisfaction over the government’s ban on Instagram after the platform restricted some officials’ messages commemorating Palestinian leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in Iran in early August. “If you abolish the parliamentary system and hand over the entire Republic of Turkey to a single person in the 21st century, he will treat it like his father's farm,” she had commented.
After her remarks went viral on social media, she was detained and subsequently arrested on charges of “provoking the public into hatred and hostility” and “insulting the president.”
After 18 days in prison, Kayserilioğlu was released late at night and without prior notice to her family or lawyer. She had to borrow a phone from a stranger to contact her family, she explained after her release, adding that the remote location of the prison complicated her situation. (VK)
