18 November 2025
Cartoonist Doğan Pehlevan has been released under judicial control (weekly signature and travel ban) in the second hearing of the case under Article 299 of the Turkish Penal Code (“insulting the President”).
Pehlevan argued that the social media account used for the allegedly offensive posts was not his: “I don’t have a Twitter account, never did. As someone who writes and draws, I do not feel the need to express myself via social media. The posts in question are outside my style.”
His lawyer Ali Deniz Ceylan stated that his client had been detained initially over a cartoon published in LeMan magazine, and that there is no police record identifying the social media account in question as belonging to Pehlevan.
The prosecutor had sought continuation of custody, but the court found that the detention was at odds with the principles of proportionality and equity and ordered his release under conditions.
