Insulting The Sultan

A Facebook user was sentenced to three years in jail in 2015 ...

President Sisi And Mickey Mouse Ears - Worth 3 yrs In Jail?

...... simply for posting a photo-shopped image of President Al-Sisi with Mickey Mouse ears.

This sadly was not some aberrant sentence by a judge trying to curry favour from the supreme leader and his ruling party .... cos in April 2017, four reporters at the government-run Al-Hilal magazine were suspended after publishing 'false information' which allegedly 'insulted' Al-Sisi’s mother.

In June 2018, the Egyptian government punished a number of journalists at the daily newspaper Al-Ahram, after a typo in the body of the text, (which meant the word for outfit was published as male genitalia), led to an article being published, which then badly insulted Entissar Al-Sisi, the wife of  President Al-Sisi, the Quds Press reported ... the punishment was believed to be fines or even imprisonment.

As part of that same crackdown, the film maker Shady Habash was detained by the security forces in 2018, after making a music video apparently mocking the president by using the slang term 'Balaha' (liar) in the title. He has been held without trial ever since on charges including "spreading fake news" and "belonging to an illegal organisation".  The writer of the song, Galal el-Behairy, was sentenced to three years in prison by a military court in August 2018.

But if you think he's a bit touchy, he's still not half as sensitive as Lord High Sultan of Turkey, Tayyip Erdogan.

For instance, the singer Zuhal Olcay was accused of changing the lyrics of one of her songs by inserting President Tayyip Erdogan’s name into it, and making an insulting hand gesture while singing. She was arrested and was sentenced to 10 months in prison in March 2018.

Then there was the case of Nuri Kurtcebe a prominent Turkish cartoonist, who was jailed, being given a 14 month sentence for  insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He was released a day later after a tribunal ruled that the cartoonist should be released on probation ... but for how long, you'll have to do some research.

In April 2018, the folk singer Suavi was sentenced to 11 months and 20 days in prison on the same charges of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, though the sentence was later converted into a fine of 14,000 Turkish Liras ($3,415).

Enes Kanter - Erdoğan is the "Hitler of our century"

Internationally, Turkish prosecutors reportedly want NBA player Enes Kanter who plays for the New York Knicks, to be jailed for four years for insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, after he posted a series of tweets, deemed by Turkish authorities about Pres.Erdoğan in May, and then again in June 2016, calling him the "Hitler of our century". In response to the threat of prosecution if he ever goes home, Kanter said “that dude is a maniac.” 

Even a grandmother was arrested in May 2018. A 54-year-old woman was arrested in Eskişehir province, for allegedly insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on social media ... in fact she joins the hundreds of others who are being reported for insulting him, or his government. Rahat Akbaba was arrested for insulting Erdoğan on his stag night ('Henna night' in Turkey). Even senior politicians Abdüllatif Şener (AKP), and Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu (CHP), were arrested, with both facing   a 14 to 56-month jail sentence, if found guilty of insulting President Erdoğan. 

 

2nd Update: In fact insulting President Erdogan remains a common criminal charge today, with 17 journalists and cartoonists put on trial in the first three months of 2022, according to independent Turkish organisation Bianet.

Whilst writing this, I couldn't help thinking of President Trump in the US, who regularly sacks anyone he has control over and who he perceives to have insulted him, and even requests their prosecution for alleged crimes .... I'm not suggesting he is as bad as those elected demagogues and dictators in the Middle East and elsewhere, who make insulting them a crime, but one cant help making the connection in their behaviours.

1st Update: Sadly its been reported that 24 year old Egyptian film maker Shady Habash, died over the weekend of the 2nd of May 2020 whilst still in illegal detention in Egypt. Its being claimed that he died of alcohol poisoning after accidentally drinking hand sanitiser, by mistaking it for water.

The insult to intelligence that this claim is making is stunning:

1. Anyone taking a swig of hand sanitiser would taste the alcohol (and smell it), the moment it was near their nose, or in their mouth. It actually tastes bad (deliberately, to stop kids and alcoholics drinking it), and they would spit it out before swallowing.
2. With most hand sanitisers having 70% - 95% Alcohol content, it would instantly give a burning sensation on the tongue and throat, but one pump swig wouldn't give a toxic amount. You would have to drink the entire bottle (and remove the pump to do so), whilst ignoring the taste, smell, and burning. Even then, it almost certainly wouldn't kill an adult male (if they didn't have an immediate reaction and cardiac shock), but would make them feel ill for 24 hours or so.

So basically the story is almost unbelievable. He either deliberately drank the hand sanitiser in an attempt to make himself sick or dead, or he was forced to drink it ... but accidentally drink enough to kill himself ... No. Just impossible.