36 thousand people investigated for ‘insulting the president’ in a year

* Photo: Murat Kula / Anadolu Agency (AA)

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The Justice Statistics of the Ministry of Justice have shown that the year 2019 saw an increase in the number of citizens who were put on trial on charge of "insulting the President" as per the Article 299 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK), which has been widely used to investigate, prosecute and penalize opinions and criticisms about President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan since he was elected the President of Turkey for the first time in 2014.

As reported by Nurcan Gökdemir from BirGün newspaper, while 5 thousand 233 people were put on trial on this charge in 2018, this number doubled in 2019 and reached 12 thousand 298. 36 thousand 66 people were investigated on this charge in 2019.

That being the case, the number of those put on trial because they insulted Erdoğan during his term in office as the President for the last six years has increased to 29 thousand 704.

9 thousand 500 defendants convicted

One third of the ones standing trial on this charge were convicted. While 40 defendants were convicted of insulting Erdoğan in 2014, which was his first year in office, this number was 238 in 2015, 884 in 2016, 2 thousand 99 in 2017, 2 thousand 462 in 2018 and 3 thousand 831 in 2019.

Taken together, 9 thousand 554 people in total were convicted of "insulting the President" during Erdoğan's term in office.

Before his term, the highest number of people convicted of this offense was 44. However, since 2014, this number has been gradually increasing and is now expressed in thousands.

2 thousand 663 people sentenced to prison

The number of defendants sentenced to prison for "insulting the President" has also increased during Erdoğan's term in office.

Taken together with the figures in 2019, 2 thousand 663 people in total have been sentenced to prison on this charge since 2014, when Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was elected the President.

Article 299 of the Turkish Penal Code

According to the Article 299 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK), those who committed the offense of "insulting the President" face one year to four years in prison. If the offense is publicly committed, the prison sentence foreseen by the law increases by one sixth:

"Any person who insults the President of the Republic shall be sentenced to a penalty of imprisonment for a term of one to four years. Where the offence is committed in public, the sentence to be imposed shall be increased by one sixth. The initiation of a prosecution for such offence shall be subject to the permission of the Minister of Justice." (TP/SD)