Turkish journalist jailed for four years for threatening Erdogan on social media

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A court on Wednesday convicted a Turkish journalist of threatening President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, reports said, in a case that critics view as an attempt to silence a prominent voice against the government.

Fatih Altayli, 63, a veteran journalist whose YouTube programs attracted hundreds of thousands of views daily, was sentenced to four years and two months in prison.

He was detained in June and charged with issuing and publicly disseminating a threat against the president.

Altayli has denied the accusation and plans to appeal his conviction. The court ruled that he remain in jail pending the appeals process, Cumhuriyet newspaper and other media reported.

The charge relates to a remark made on the “Fatih Altayli Comments” program following a poll that reportedly showed more than 70% of the public opposed a lifetime presidency for Erdogan, who has been in power for more than two decades. Altayli said he was not surprised by the result of the poll and that the Turkish people preferred checks on authority.

“Look at the history of this nation,” he said. “This is a nation which strangled its sultan when they didn’t like him or want him. There are quite a few Ottoman sultans who were assassinated, strangled, or whose deaths were made to look like suicide.”

On Wednesday, Altayli told the court that the accusations against him “feel absurd and unnecessary,” according to Cumhuriyet.

“Why should the President be afraid of me? I am not a member of any organization, I am nothing of the sort. I have never resorted to violence,” the newspaper cited him as saying.

The journalist’s YouTube program was suspended last month following the first hearing of his trial. Until then, he had continued to deliver news and commentary through letters that were relayed by his lawyers and read aloud by his assistant.

With a majority of mainstream media in Turkey owned by pro-government businesses or directly controlled by the government, several independent journalists have turned to YouTube for uncensored reporting.

There are 11 journalists and other media sector workers, including Altayli, behind bars in Turkey, according to the Turkish Journalists Syndicate. The government claims journalists face prosecution for criminal acts, not for their journalistic work.