Barbaros Şansal is a Turkish fashion designer and political activist. He faces a long prison sentence over allegedly insulting Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Twitter.
What happened?
The Turkish fashion designer has been sued by the Turkish state over five retweets (i.e. the resharing of tweets composed and shared by other users on your own timeline) which have been deemed insulting to the Turkish president.
The charges can result in up to five years in prison for Şansal, who has already served two months in prison for criticizing Turkey in 2017.
The legality of the case
Şansal is disputing the legality of the case as Turkish law states that the maximum sentence for insulting the Turkish president is four years. He said that he cannot understand how the lawsuit was accepted and the case opened with the prosecutors demanding a five-year maximum sentence.
