Turkish comedian Deniz Goktas goes on trial for allegedly insulting Erdogan

Deniz Goktas, a 32-year-old Turkish comedian, appeared at Istanbul’s Caglayan courthouse on Monday to face charges that include insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other offences, local media reported.

Goktas was arrested on July 3, about a week after a YouTube recording of his “Dead Sea” stand-up show went viral with roughly nine million views, the reports said. He has been held in pre-trial detention since his arrest and was brought from Karatepe high-security prison, about 120 kilometres west of Istanbul.

The indictment lists charges of insulting Erdogan, incitement to public hatred and praising crime and criminals, according to the published accounts. Turkish media calculations cited by the outlets suggested that, if convicted on all counts, Goktas could face around a decade behind bars.

As the hearing opened at Caglayan courthouse, Goktas took the stand and offered a defence rooted in political satire, which Punch reported often drew laughter from the courtroom. He denied the charges and told the court that satire is an established part of Turkish culture and that there should be no place for censorship or detention of artists. Punch quoted him saying, “Erdogan should be open to the art of satire,” and that a comedian had been “taken three months” from his life by detention. He asked to be acquitted and released.

Outside the courthouse, about 50 protesters gathered in the rain, many holding umbrellas and chanting in support of Goktas, while police monitored the scene. Several comedians who worked with Goktas at Istanbul’s TuzBiber comedy club attended, and there were observers from the Dutch embassy and the US consulate in the crowd, the reports said.

Both outlets described Goktas’s arrest as part of a wider pattern of prosecutions that has affected politicians, artists, musicians, journalists and LGBTQ activists in recent years. Goktas began his comedy career at TuzBiber in Istanbul in 2019 and has performed at venues across Europe and the United States, the coverage said.

The prosecution added an extra charge later in the case, the reports said. The indictment summary carried in the media did not set out a clear sentence range, prompting the press calculations about a possible maximum of around ten years.

Goktas is currently held at Karatepe prison, where he has at times posted short messages on the social platform X, according to the accounts. The case continues at Caglayan courthouse.

Featured image: Russian Presidential Executive Office via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.