The seventh hearing of the case against METU students on the charges of “insulting the president” took place on January 11, 2021. Four students carrying the banner bearing a cartoon titled “The World of Tayyips” and the printer who printed the banner have been on trial at Ankara 11. Court of First Instance. The court acquitted the students and the printer at this hearing.   

What has happened?

Students who had carried a banner bearing the said cartoon at the METU graduation ceremony were detained and then released. After the incident, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had met with the students. Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s lawyers had not attended the first hearing and the president had withdrawn his complaint in the first hearing of the case.

* “The world of Tayyips” was a cartoon depicting President Erdoğan as different types of animals. The cartoon was drawn by the illustrators of the satire magazine Penguen, following the lawsuit the President filed a lawsuit against the cartoonist Musa Kart, who had drawn Erdoğan as a cat.