Turkey: Supreme Court of Appeals upholds prison sentence for Armenian writer for criticizing Islam’s prophet

Sevan Nisanyan

Jihad Watch : Turkey’s Court of Cassation, also called Supreme Court of Appeals of Turkey, has recently upheld the 13-and-a-half-month prison sentence imposed by a local court on the prominent Armenian writer Sevan Nişanyan for his “offensive” statements about Islam’s prophet Muhammad, the Turkish news website Diken reported.

According to the Turkish criminal code, for one to be legally given a sentence for “publicly degrading religious values”, one’s act should be deemed by a court “capable of disturbing public peace”. In its ruling, the Court stated:

“These are not crimes of harm. These are crimes of danger. Hence, the possibility of public peace to be disrupted is enough for the defendant’s act to constitute a crime. There is no need for a clear and competent danger for the public peace to be disrupted.”

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