A court has sentenced Sevan Nisanyan to jail for two years for illegal construction…in a country where illegal construction is ubiquitous.
A prominent Turkish-Armenian blogger accused a Turkish court on Friday of issuing a “politically-motivated” verdict after being sentenced to jail on charges of illegal construction.
An appeals court in the western coastal city of Izmir sentenced Sevan Nisanyan to two years in prison on charges of building without a permit.
An Istanbul court in May had also sentenced Nisanyan, a self-confessed atheist, to one year in jail for blasphemy over a blog post supporting the controversial anti-Islam film “Innocence of Muslims” but he has appealed the verdict.
So while they’re waiting they’ll convict him of something else. Whatever works.
Nisanyan, who also faces up to 16 years in prison on other charges related to construction work on his hotels in the village of Sirince near Izmir, said he would be sent to jail next week.
But in a country littered with illegal constructions, he said the court ruling on Thursday was punishment for his outspoken views about restrictions on freedom of expression in Turkey.
“It is politically motivated because in this community, those who try to be an individual and stand firm on their ideas have always been punished,” he told AFP.
He must have hurt the feelings of the community.
Nisanyan was convicted of blasphemy over his September 2012 blog defending the anti-Islam film that ridiculed the Prophet Mohammed and sparked angry protests across the world.
“Mocking an Arab leader who centuries ago claimed to have contacted God and made political, financial and sexual benefits out of this is not a crime of hatred,” he wrote.
His words touched a nerve in the staunchly secular but majority Muslim nation and he received hundreds of death threats after the court decision.
Turkey has long been criticized for a lack of press freedom and dozens of journalists are in detention, accused of plotting against the Islamist-rooted government or having links with outlawed movements such as the Kurdish rebels.
“Staunchly secular”? A “staunchly secular” nation doesn’t produce hundreds of death threats over an observation like that.
H/t torcant
The guy’s kind of a gadfly in general, has been for years. In an awesome way, but the hurt feelings of “the community” (read: local authorities in Izmir) go back a ways before any particular blog post. I stayed at his place in Sirince a couple of years ago. There’s a tower on the premises that he built as a “fuck you” to the local authorities who are the ones pushing this long-ongoing prosecution of him for “illegal building” (which gets scarequotes because it’s only illegal because he is routinely denied permits for no reason by the same local officials. The sign on the tower door says “Built in [year] to protest idiocy in government” (I forget the year). It’s an absolutely fantastic place to stay, beautiful location and landscaping, and he’s kind of a local hero to the villagers in Sirince. That totally sucks that it looks like he’s actually going to jail. He’s kind of arrogant, but in this great iconoclastic way that makes you like him all the same. Charismatic guy.
Oh, that’s great background, and good to know. Thanks, CJ.