A court on Tuesday found a former Miss Turkey beauty queen guilty of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on social media, handing her a suspended sentence of over one year in jail. The Istanbul court sentenced model Merve Buyuksarac, 27, to one year and two months for "publicly insulting" Erdogan in a satirical poem she posted on her Instagram account, the Dogan news agency reported. The punishment has been suspended, it added, without giving further details.
The "Master's Poem" - which was shared by the model while Erdogan was serving as prime minister - criticises the Turkish strongman with verses adapted from the national anthem.
Erdogan, who was elected president in August 2014 after serving as prime minister for more than a decade, is often called "Buyuk Usta" (the Big Master). Hatice Ozay, Erdogan's lawyer, told the court that the model's post could not be considered criticism of the president - which would be legal - but rather an insult, or an "attack against my client's personal rights". The state-run Anatolia news agency said Buyuksarac was not present at the hearing. Her lawyer, Ali Deniz Ceylan, told the court the beauty queen's comments should be interpreted as legitimate political criticism.
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