A satirical show and a video on YouTube earned him prosecution, he brought his verve even to the court. A Turkish comedian was sentenced Monday to more than 19 months in prison but released, against all expectations, until the appeal decision.
Deniz Göktas, 32, known for his deadpan humor and scathing political satire, left prison late Monday, September 28, after 88 days behind bars. “In Türkiye... there are thousands of people like me who are detained or sentenced for their opinions. It’s great to be outside,” he told reporters. “But it doesn’t make much difference whether you’re in or out. I hope that a day will come when we can all regain our freedom,” he added.
He was arrested on July 2, then placed in pre-trial detention the next day, a week after a video of his show was posted on YouTube, viewed nearly nine million times. Detained in the high security prison of Karatepe, 120 kilometers from Istanbul, he was prosecuted for insulting President Erdogan, insulting religion and advocating crime and criminals. After a trial lasting a few hours, he was found guilty of the first two counts and acquitted of the last. Against all expectations, however, the court ordered his release pending the appeal decision.
In front of a courtroom full of journalists, supporters of the actor and dozens of police officers, the vibrant thirty-year-old won over the room with his ease and his deliberate absence of remorse. He was notably accused of having used the term “dictator”. But “there is no criminal element in this joke about dictators,” he defended. “Dictator is not an insult, it is a political qualification.” “He is president and leader of the ruling party, which has ruled the country for 25 years. A political comedy show in which the name of Recep Tayyip Erdogan is never mentioned would have neither sincerity nor any link with reality.”
“A power that can no longer tolerate jokes”
Several thousand people have been prosecuted in recent years in Turkey, in particular for “insulting the president”, sometimes due to publications on social networks dating back several years. A campaign orchestrated by the Islamo-conservative government in place, which targeted politicians, artists, musicians, journalists and LGBT+ activists, among others.
In pouring rain, around fifty demonstrators sheltered under umbrellas gathered in front of the Çaglayan courthouse in Istanbul, under the watchful eye of several dozen police officers, chanting: “Deniz Göktas is not alone! », According to AFP journalists. “The indictment is based on the idea of protecting our moral foundations and our values. But humor is also an age-old component of the culture of this region,” the actor told his judges. “There should be no room for censorship, bans or detention for artists who take the stage.” Smiling, combative, tribune, he brought bursts of laughter from the room as he presented his defense. While steadfastly maintaining its positioning. “The laws protecting freedom of expression have not changed (...). But today, a comedian is sitting in a cell,” he noted. “What has changed is an increasingly fragile power, which can no longer tolerate jokes.”
This Ankara-born comedian began his stand-up career at Istanbul's TuzBiber comedy club in 2019. He has since performed in venues across Europe and the United States. Some actors, who are currently performing in this room, were present to support him as well as Dutch and American diplomats. “Three months of my life were taken away from me (in pre-trial detention). I stopped smoking, so I will add three months to the end of my life anyway,” he joked, to loud applause from the room. In court, Fatih Yilmaz, a 22-year-old stand-up who started a year ago in Alanya (south), claimed a symbolic connection with Deniz Göktas: “I am not afraid of doing stand-up after his arrest (...) (which) made me proud. His firmness and the way he continues to make jokes from his cell gives me strength.”
