A Turkish court has accepted an indictment seeking a prison sentence of up to three years for YouTuber, Twitch streamer and podcaster Ahmet Sonuç, known online as Jahrein, on charges of obscenity, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported on Tuesday.
Previously arrested for engaging in “speech that is not in accordance with general morality and the values of society” during a livestream, Sonuç was released pending trial on Monday after spending a month behind bars.
The indictment accepted by the Antalya 8th Penal Court of First Instance requests that the internet celebrity be tried on charges of “obscenity through the press,” with a sentence ranging from six months to three years in prison and a judicial fine.
Sonuç made allegedly inappropriate remarks during a live broadcast on the streaming platform Kick, where he had recently moved after years of streaming on Twitch. The remarks, deemed obscene, involved inappropriate discussions about family members and lewd suggestions regarding his own child.
Sonuç, who was born to Turkish Cypriot parents but has spent much of his life in Turkey, Germany and Poland, is a prominent figure in Turkish online communities, with a Twitch following of 1.9 million.
He defended himself against the accusations of obscenity, explaining that his controversial remarks were part of an ongoing inside joke within his online community, emphasizing that the comments were taken out of context and claiming the incident has been manipulated by certain online groups to smear his reputation.