An appeals court in western Turkey has acquitted a woman who had been convicted of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in a street interview in which she criticized a ban on popular social media platform Instagram last year, her lawyer announced.
Dilruba Kayserilioğlu was sentenced by a local court last October to nearly 12 months in prison for “insulting the president” after remarks she made about a temporary ban on Instagram. Her sentence, which she appealed, had been suspended. The appeals court in İzmir overturned the conviction and ruled for her acquittal.
She had initially been arrested on separate charges of inciting hatred and insulting a segment of society. Prosecutors later brought a new indictment against her over the same comments, accusing her of insulting the president.
In Turkey insulting the president is a criminal offense under Article 299 of the Turkish Penal Code, leading to the prosecution or conviction of hundreds of people every year for expressing views that might be critical or satirical of the president, even indirectly.
Kayserilioğlu’s lawyer, Hüseyin Yıldız, welcomed the ruling, writing on X on Tueaday that “the struggle began last year. First we secured her release from detention, and now we have achieved an acquittal.”
Geçen yıl başlamıştı mücadelemiz. Önce tutukluluğu kaldırmıştık, şimdi ise BERAAT kararı… Ülkemizde yaşanan tüm hukuksuzluklara ilham kaynağı olması en büyük isteğimizdir. #kurtulusyoktekbasına @Dilruba_Yldzl pic.twitter.com/jwxMmxU2vl
— HÜSEYİN YILDIZ (@_Huseyin_Yildiz) September 16, 2025
The Instagram ban, which was enforced from August 2 to August 10, 2024, affected millions of users across Turkey. It was implemented after government officials accused the platform of censoring content related to Palestinian militant group Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh, who had been assassinated by Israel in July 2024.
In the interview, posted on a local social media channel, Kayserilioğlu argued that the ban on Instagram was a result of the vast powers granted to Erdoğan by a presidential system of governance.
“He [Erdoğan] is currently governing the country as he wishes. This is so wrong. This is a secular country; he can’t just arbitrarily shut down Instagram,” she said.
“And to those who support him, let me say this: You are all foolish; you are nothing more than mindless, brainwashed people,” she added.
The case has attracted criticism from human rights advocates, who view it as part of a broader crackdown on free expression in Turkey.
