The lawsuit against the four students for carrying a banner with “The World of Tayyips” cartoon* at the Middle Eastern Technical University (METU) graduation ceremony and a person known to have printed the banner was postponed to January 11th, 2021. The hearing of the case was held on October 27th at the Ankara 11th Criminal Court of First Instance. The defendants were charged with “insulting the President.” The court decided to re-examine the file due to the assignment of a new judge to the case.

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 Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s lawyers had not attended the first hearing  and the president had withdrawn his complaint in the first hearing of the case.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 cartoonist Musa Kart, who had drawn Erdoğan as a cat.