Students' 'porn thesis' cleared at court

ISTANBUL

Two university students, who had been facing up to four years in prison due to a pornographic movie shot as their thesis, have been acquitted of all charges of "indecency," daily Habertürk has reported.

The accused, identified as 26-year-old D.Ö. and 25-year-old E.Ş.U., were both students of Istanbul Bilgi University's Visual Communications Design department, and had shot a porn film, titled “The Porn Project,” at the university’s SantralIstanbul campus in 2011.

After the film hit headlines, the university administration filed a criminal complaint against the two students.

A prosecutor demanded up to four years in prison for the students for "indecency," but an Istanbul court has now acquitted the two students.

Volga Gökçe, the lawyer for one of the suspects, said upon the court’s decision that the case should never have been initiated.

“This was a case that should never have been opened, as it was a scientific work,” Habertürk quoted Gökçe as saying.