Sculptor cleared of insulting Erdoğan

ISTANBUL

CİHAN photo

A Turkish sculptor has been acquitted on charges of insulting the Turkish president after he was tried for suggesting money won in compensation in a previous case against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was “illicit.”

Sculptor Mehmet Aksoy was acquitted by an Istanbul court on Feb. 16 on defamation charges in the case Erdoğan’s lawyers filed against the former’s statement, “I’m not going to invest illicit money in making a sculpture,” which he made after winning another case he filed against Erdoğan.

Aksoy filed the case against Erdoğan after the Turkish president declared a sculpture made by him in the northeastern province of Kars to be a “freak.”

On Mar. 3, 2015, the court ordered Erdoğan to pay 10,000 liras in moral indemnities to Aksoy, partially accepting the 100,000-lira case Aksoy filed against Erdoğan.  

While Aksoy’s lawyer said labeling the sculpture a “freak” was an insult to Aksoy, Erdoğan’s legal team claimed that it was not as an insult, but rather a critique.