Turkey's Supreme Court of Appeals on Thursday approved a conviction on three counts with a prison term of four years, 11 months and 20 days for main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Istanbul head Canan Kaftancıoğlu.
The 3rd Penal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Appeals completed the appeal review of the case where Kaftancıoğlu was tried at the Istanbul 37th High Criminal Court and sentenced on Sept. 6, 2019.
Kaftancıoğlu was found guilty of "insulting a public official because of her/his duty," "publicly insulting the State of the Republic of Turkey" and "insulting the president" due to her social media posts.
The charges related mostly to tweets Kaftancıoğlu posted between 2012 and 2017.
The chamber upheld Kaftancıoğlu's one year, six months and 20 days prison sentence for "insulting a public official due to her/his duty" and one year and eight months imprisonment for "publicly insulting the State of the Republic of Turkey" on the grounds that they comply with the types of crimes stipulated in the law. Kaftancıoğlu's prison sentence of two years and four months for "insulting the president" was corrected to one year and nine months and upheld.
On the other hand, Kaftancıoğlu's sentences of one year and six months for "making propaganda for the PKK armed terrorist organization" and two years and eight months imprisonment for "provoking the public to hatred and enmity" were overturned by the department.
Following the decision, CHP Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu called on all party deputies to the party's Istanbul headquarters for an emergency meeting.
"All lawmakers of our party, immediately set off for our Istanbul provincial headquarters," he tweeted right after the ruling.
