Famous singer convicted on ‘inciting hatred’

ISTANBUL

A court has convicted famous pop singer Gülşen Bayraktar Çolakoğlu of “inciting hatred” with the remarks she made about the İmam Hatip religious schools.

The announcement of the verdict that sentenced Gülşen to 10 years in prison was deferred.

In Türkiye, if the prison sentence is less than two years, the announcement of the verdict is delayed for five years and has no legal consequences. If the convict does not commit a crime within the supervision period, the decision is annulled.

Gülşen, famous with her first name on stage, was detained at home in Istanbul and taken to court on Aug. 25 over a comment she made about religious schools in a video that set social media abuzz.

A judge then sent her to jail pending an investigation after her remarks she made on stage in April that a member of her band’s “perversion” was due to him having attended one.

Despite the comments being old, they went viral online, drawing criticism.

In her testimony at the police station before being jailed, Gülşen stated that the clip showing her making the comments was a misunderstanding as it was shot while she was joking with her colleague. “This was not a speech I made to participants of the concert or the media,” she said.

She also issued an apology on social media before her arrest.

After four days in prison, the high court ruled the release of the singer and put her under house arrest, but another court lifted her house arrest later.

After that the singer’s ban on leaving the country was lifted in return for depositing a security amount of 250,000 Turkish Liras.