Court convicts Turkish comedian of insulting president but orders release, broadcaster says

ISTANBUL, Sept 28 (Reuters) – A Turkish court convicted comedian Deniz Goktas of insulting PresidentTayyip Erdogan on Monday but ordered his release after almost three months in custody, broadcaster NTV said.

Goktas, 32, was jailed in early July pending trial after an investigation was opened into remarks made during a stand-up performance in Istanbul that included references toErdogan, the Koran and jailed Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu.

The performance quickly went viral online, attracting more than 15 million views on YouTube and spreading widely across X, Instagram and other social media platforms.

Goktas was sentenced to 11 months and 20 days in prison for “insulting the president” and to seven months and 15 days for “publicly inciting hatred and enmity”, NTV said. Convicts are generally freed on licence after serving a certain proportion of their sentence.

Goktas denied the charges.

Dozens of supporters had gathered outside Istanbul’s mainCaglayan courthouse calling for his release.

(Reporting by Mehmet Emin Caliskan; Writing by Ezgi Erkoyun; Editing by Daren Butler and Kevin Liffey)