A comedian in Turkey has been jailed for insulting President Tayyip Erdogan.
Deniz Goktas has been jailed pending trial on Friday for insulting the president and religious values, a court document showed, days after prosecutors opened an investigation into remarks he made on stage.
Insulting the president is among the charges against him, Goktas’ lawyer Metin Aslan said in a social media post.
The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said earlier this week it had launched an investigation after identifying what it described as criminal expressions in content shared by Goktas on social media. Police detained him at Istanbul Airport when he flew back to Turkey from a trip abroad on Thursday.
Prosecutors said the investigation concerned allegations that Goktas insulted religious values during a stand-up performance in Istanbul on June 1, in which he made references to Erdogan, the Koran and jailed Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu.
The performance quickly went viral online, and attracted more than nine million views on YouTube as of Friday, with clips spreading widely across X, Instagram and other social media platforms.
Several members of Erdogan’s ruling AK Party and Erdogan’s advisers criticised Goktas on social media, accusing him of mocking Erdogan and the Koran.
In a statement to police, Goktas denied the charges, saying his jokes were not an insult against religious values or the Koran, according to broadcaster Haberturk. He also said that his description of Erdogan as a “dictator” was a political definition and not an insult.
After speculation that he had left Turkey to avoid prosecution, Goktas said on social media earlier this week that he had travelled abroad for a holiday and intended to return.
“I intend to spend many more years in Turkey and if there is a situation demanding my presence, I will return on the next flight back,” he wrote.
It comes as US President Donald Trump praised Erdogan ahead of next week’s NATO summit in Turkey, which he is set to attend.
Trump has frequently praised Erdogan, calling him a “hell of a leader” and a good friend. “I would not have gone for most people,” Trump said last week. “But he called me up. He said: ‘Please, I have it in Turkey. You got to be there. The United States has to be in there.’ And so I’m going out of respect to President Erdogan.”
