A prosecutor has drafted an indictment seeking up to 18 months for cartoonist Seyfi Şahin, who used to work for the closed-down popular humor magazine Gırgır, for insulting sacred values in a controversial cartoon featuring Moses.
The indictment was prepared by the Küçükçekmece Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.
During a court hearing on Tuesday, which was not attended by Şahin, his lawyer said Şahin did not aim to insult the prophet of any religion and that many similar cartoons are drawn and published in humor magazines.
The court ruled that Şahin be brought to court under police escort to testify.
Gırgır was closed down in February after it published the controversial cartoon by Şahin in its last edition.
Back then, the lawyer representing the publishing house for Gırgır told media outlets that the company would file criminal complaints against the cartoonists and other staff at the magazine who were responsible for the controversial cartoon.
At the time, a statement released from the social media account of the magazine said: “We apologize to everyone we hurt with the ‘terrible’ cartoon which, we did not notice due to lack of sleep and exhaustion before it was printed.”