Sel Yayıncılık

Sel Publishing: “The Assaults against Freedom of Thought and Expression are Completely Unacceptable”

Source: Kaos GL, “Düşünce ve Yaratım Özgürlüğüne Yapılan Saldırılar Kabul Edilemez,” (“The Assaults against Freedom of Thought and Expression are Completely Unacceptable,”) 19 December 2013, http://kaosgl.org/sayfa.php?id=15442

The court has decided to delay the prosecution of the case regarding “indecency” against Sel Publishing, which had been brought on because of Apollinaire’s The Exploits of a Young Don Juan. İrfan Sancı, the owner of Sel, answered kaosGL.org’s questions about the lawsuit process and the concept of “indecency.”

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Court Finds French Book “Indecent”

Source: “Yargıtay, Fransızca kitabı ‘müstehcen’ buldu,” (“Court Finds French Book “Obscene”,”) Radikal, 6 August 2013,  http://www.radikal.com.tr/turkiye/yargitay_fransizca_kitabi_mustehcen_buldu-1145084

The owner of the publishing house “Sel Yayıncılık” İrfan Sancı and the translator İsmail Yerguz were put on indecency trial for publishing and translating the book “The Exploits of a Young Don Juan” written by Guillaume Apollinaire.

Istanbul, 2nd Court of First Instance arrived at a verdict to acquit, since the book was a literary work and does not constitute crime. Then the verdict was appealed and the file was seen at the 14th Penal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Appeals. The Penal Chamber denounced the verdict of the Court of First Instance unanimously, dropped the decision, and requested the defendants to stand trial for 6 to 10 years imprisonment.

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