Journalist Onur Öncü is to appear before the court after Soylu’s lawyer appealed against his acquittal

After Süleyman Soylu’s lawyer appealed against his acquittal, journalist Onur Öncü will appear before the court in December in the ‘insulting Süleyman Soylu’ case which was initially heard via “simple trial procedure.” On August 11 2021, the Küçükçekmece Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office indicted journalist Onur Öncü for “insulting a public official.” Requesting that the journalist be punished as per Article 125 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK), the half-page indictment claimed that Öncü committed the offense “openly” and “against a public official due to their public duty.” The prosecutor cited the May 3, 2021 broadcast on Özgürüz’s Youtube channel titled “Minister of Interior wishing to be the Hortum Süleyman** of the country” as evidence for crime. The prosecutor however failed to specify which remark and by whom constituted the element of the offense Öncü was charged with. The Küçükçekmece 22nd Criminal Court of First Instance accepted the indictment and decided to hear the case via “simple trial procedure.” The court gave the parties 15 days to submit their written arguments to the court. Adjudicating the case on July 26 2022, the Küçükçekmece 22nd Criminal Court of First Instance reasoned that the elements of the offense Öncü was charged with did not occur. In its reasoned judgment, the court further stated that the statements by Öncü throughout the video did not contain any insult towards Süleyman Soylu but instead can be considered as “harsh criticism” in line with the case law of the Court of Cassation and the European Court of Human Rights. The court ruled to acquit journalist Öncü of “insulting a public official” charge. After Soylu’s lawyer appealed against the acquittal of journalist Öncü, the Küçükçekmece 22nd Criminal Court of First Instance decided to hear the via general trial procedure. Journalist Onur Öncü, whom MLSA represents in court, will appear before the court on December 19, 2022. **Hortum Süleyman: Appellation for Süleyman Ulusoy, former Beyoğlu Chief of Police who is infamously known to beat and torture trans people in the Beyoğlu Police Station. *This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. The work may be used and redistributed for non-commercial purposes with proper attribution to the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA).