Turkey court jails talent manager for 12 years over 'bid to overthrow government'

An Istanbul court on Wednesday sentenced a prominent TV talent manager to 12.5 years behind bars for "seeking to overthrow the government" during street protests that swept Turkey in 2013, state news agency Anadolu reported.

Prosecutors had called for Ayse Barim, 55, to face life in jail for an alleged attempt to bring down the government - charges she has repeatedly denied since her arrest in January 2025.

Despite the heavy penal sentence, Barim will not be jailed but placed under judicial supervision, with a ban on leaving Turkey, her lawyer Deniz Ketenci told AFP, pledging to appeal.

The so-called Gezi protests erupted over plans to redevelop an Istanbul park, sparking a wave of nationwide unrest against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was prime minister at the time.

Prosecutors accused Barim of "pushing" her actors to take part in the rallies.

But looking pale and emaciated on the stand, Barim denied she had encouraged the actors she represented to join the protests which began in May 2013 and were harshly repressed by the government.

"I am innocent, I ask to be acquitted," she told the court.

Her arrest just over a year ago triggered anger across the country with some accusing the government of tightening its grip on Turkey's cultural space.

At Cannes film festival in May, the Turkish-German director Fatih Akin expressed his support for Barim, telling AFP he feared he too would be arrested if he returned to Turkey.

Besides Akin, Barim has also represented numerous Turkish TV stars, including actors from "The Magnificent Century", a loose adaptation of the life of Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, a series spanning four seasons that was broadcast in more than 40 countries.

Halit Ergenc, its star who plays the sultan, was also charged in the same investigation and was handed a suspended sentence in May.

Over the past year, Turkish prosecutors have multiplied their investigations into opposition figures, including Istanbul's powerful mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, citing charges from graft to terror ties.

Most of the cases were opened by Istanbul's chief prosecutor, Akin Gurlek, who overnight was named as Turkey's new justice minister.

But the new appointment sparked tense scenes in parliament on Wednesday, with a brawl breaking out between lawmakers from Erdogan's ruling AKP and the main opposition CHP at Gurlek's swearing-in ceremony.