Turkey’s Supreme Court of Appeal has unanimously overturned a previous ruling of acquittals of the publisher and translator of a book by celebrated French novelist and poet Guillaume Apollinaire, arguing that some of book’s context failed to fall under freedom of speech due to its perversion.
Guillaume Apollinaire’s book, 'The Exploits of a Young Don Juan' (Les exploits d’un jeune Don Juan), in particular gave detailed accounts of “unnatural sexual intercourse” with no “form of a plotline,” according to court, therefore failing to constitute a case for freedom of speech.
Sel Publishing’s owner İrfan Sancı and translator İsmail Yerguz were initially taken to court over the explicit nature of the book, but an Istanbul court has granted them acquittal, describing the book as a work of literature.
The Supreme Court however overturned the ruling on the grounds that freedom of speech had to include “a sense of responsibility,” instead demanding Sancı and Yerguz to be tried on charges carrying a maximum sentence of six to ten years.
“During the exertions of freedoms, one has to move with a sense of responsibility, and such freedoms can come under limitations and rules which aim to prevent disorder, preserve the society’s morals and general health,” the court stated.
The book aimed to “exploit and arouse the sexual desires and harm the modesty of the society,” and contained “a vulgar and simple language.”
The translation and the publication of the book “cannot be seen as acts of freedom of speech,” according to court, which added that the book “contained statements that reached levels of perversion towards mothers, aunts, siblings, members of the same sex and animals.”
Read more of this report from Hurriyet Daily News.