ISTANBUL, Turkey, March 26 (UPI) -- A Turkish court reduced the sentences of two magazine cartoonists convicted of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Bahadir Beruter and Ozer Aydogan, of the satirical weekly Penguen, were sentenced Mar. 24 to over a year in prison after a reader complained to Turkey's information ministry over an alleged hidden symbol in a cartoon. In the cartoon, Erdogan welcomes a guest to his lavish new presidential palace by suggesting "At least we could have slaughtered a journalist." Erdogan's circular hand gesture implies he is homosexual, the complainant claimed.