Actress Hazal Kaya is facing charges in Turkey for insulting a convicted rapist on social media. In 2021 former Turkish army sergeant Musa Orhan was sentenced for the rape of an 18-year-old Kurdish woman, İpek Er. The rape had pushed Er to suicide. Orhan remains free.
Orhan’s lawyer filed a case against Kaya for the crime of ‘publicly insulting through audio, written, or visual message’ and the indictment seeks a prison sentence of up to two years and four months.
Kaya’s social media posts were intended to support a colleague, Ezgi Mola, who was fined in a 2022 lawsuit on the same charge that now Kaya faces.
“I don’t think I belong to a legal system where it is a crime to call a rapist ‘a rapist’,” said Kaya in her statement.
“I cannot understand how a person who takes away all hope for life from a young girl and drags her to death by using the position and influence provided to him by the state could be so sensitive and fragile about honour and dignity,” the actress added.
Kaya also expressed reproach towards “a system in which the perpetrators of violence against women are not punished, but those who speak what is worthy and necessary to those perpetrators are [punished]”.
In a detailed suicide note Er had explained that she felt it would be hopeless to report her abduction, drugging and rape, and that she did not expect authorities to hold Orhan accountable for his crimes.
Complications arose following her suicide attempt and the young student died on 18 August 2020 in her hometown of Batman, a Kurdish-majority province in Turkey, after being admitted to hospital.
Er’s suicide attempt caused a public outcry and Orhan was detained. However, he was released a week later pending trial by court order on the grounds that there was “no risk of evidence spoliation”.
Workers’ Party of Turkey (TİP) MP Barış Atay accused Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu of covering up the rape case. Atay received retaliatory threats from Soylu and was attacked by a group of three men. Shortly afterwards, in September 2020, Orhan was dismissed from the military.
Over a year later, in December 2021, Orhan was sentenced to 10 years in prison for sexual assault and causing the death of İpek Er. Nevertheless, Orhan remained free. The court had reduced his sentence ‘for good conduct’ and refused to remand him in custody under Turkey’s parole laws.
Hazal Kaya and Ezgi Mola are not the only well-known figures facing charges of insult against Musa Orhan. Actress Farah Zeynep Abdullah and singer Melek Mosso have also been charged with the same offence.
Turkish journalist Pınar Gayıp also faced multiple investigations for reporting on the rape case.
After Orhan was released a photo of him surfaced in Turkey’s mainstream media that showed the ex-sergeant displaying a hand sign that represents the Grey Wolves, an ultra-far-right Turkish nationalist organisation.
Commenting on the image, Turkey’s Human Rights Association (İHD) co-chair Eren Keskin said, “If a perpetrator wears an official uniform, and makes the sign of the Grey Wolves, which is the official sign of fascism, unfortunately, he is protected everywhere.”
