Turkish actress faces court for remarks against alleged rapist

A popular Turkish actress faces a lawsuit because she expressed support for another actress who had earlier been convicted because she called an army sergeant "rapist" and "disgraceful" after a young woman committed suicide upon being subjected to sexual assault by the man.

The first hearing of the case against actress Hazal Kaya took place in Ankara on Thursday. The prosecution asks for a prison term of up to 2 years and 4 months over the accusation that Mola committed an offense of "insult on audio-visual and written media."

Earlier, actress Ezgi Mola was found guilty of "insult" for calling sergeant Musa Orhan "rapist" and "disgraceful," and was punished by a fine.

Rejecting Orhan's lawyer who asked her to post an apology on social media, Mola had said in her defense statement in court:

"I made those remarks against violence targeting women. I felt sorrowful, like many others, when I saw in news reports that the forensic report confirms the statements of the victim Ipek Er, and I expressed my sorrow on social media. 160,000 tweets on this incident were posted before mine, and it has turned into an issue for all people in Turkey. I previously posted messages on violence against women on several occasions, and I will keep on doing this, because I think this violence is a bleeding wound for Turkey."

The incident

Eighteen-year-old Ipek Er had shot herself in a suicide attempt in mid July 2020 in a district of the Kurdish-province of Batman, and died in the hospital 34 days later.

She had written in a letter before the suicide attempt that she had been sexually assaulted by sergeant Musa Orhan.

Orhan is accused of "sexual assault" in an ongoing lawsuit, and faces a prison sentence of up to 12 years.