A local prosecutor has demanded two years in jail for two Samsun university students for allegedly throwing darts at a board covered with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's photo.
Yıldırım Beyazıt Besim and Mert Deniz Özkaya, students at the Black Sea province’s Ondokuz Mayıs University, participated in a protest against new educational reforms last year in August by throwing darts at a dart board featuring Erdoğan’s picture. After the two threw the darts, police forces intervened to prevent others from doing so.
After a probe was launched into the incident, the two were charged with “overt defamation of a public official.”
"No kinds of opposition are tolerated in Turkey," Besim said, adding that their act was a democratic demand, not defamation.
Similar protests have been held in different parts of Turkey, he said.
The students’ first hearing will be held in June.A local prosecutor has demanded two years in jail for two Samsun university students for allegedly throwing darts at a board covered with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's photo.
Yıldırım Beyazıt Besim and Mert Deniz Özkaya, students at the Black Sea province’s Ondokuz Mayıs University, participated in a protest against new educational reforms last year in August by throwing darts at a dart board featuring Erdoğan’s picture. After the two threw the darts, police forces intervened to prevent others from doing so.
After a probe was launched into the incident, the two were charged with “overt defamation of a public official.”
"No kinds of opposition are tolerated in Turkey," Besim said, adding that their act was a democratic demand, not defamation.
Similar protests have been held in different parts of Turkey, he said.
The students’ first hearing will be held in June.
Note EU-Digest:: What has happened to Democracy and Freedom of Expression in Turkey?
Read more:RIGHTS - Students face two-year jail sentence for throwing darts at Turkish PM’s photo
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