Turkey court orders cartoonist's release pending trial

A Turkish court has ordered the release of cartoonist Dogan Pehlevan, who was in pre-trial detention on charges of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a rights group said.

Pehlevan was released under judicial control that requires him to check in once a week and prohibits him from travelling overseas, the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA) group said late Tuesday.

The cartoonist was accused of insulting Erdogan in two social media messages on X, formerly Twitter, in 2019 and 2024, according to Amnesty International.

At an Istanbul court hearing on Tuesday, Pehlevan denied owning any such social media account.

"I have never had a Twitter account. As someone who writes and draws, I don't feel the need to express myself on social media," he told the court via video link, MLSA said.

Pehlevan, together with three others, was jailed in July on a separate charge following allegations that LeMan, the satirical magazine where he works, had published a caricature of the Prophet Mohammad, a claim the publication has rigorously denied.

The other three staffers have since been released, and the court ordered Pehlevan's release in that case last week, pending trial.

The next hearing for that case is on 5 May.

The magazine and its staff have consistently denied any link between an illustration published in the magazine, which features a person named Muhammad, and Islam's Prophet Mohammad.