Turkish pianist handed jail term in blasphemy retrial

ISTANBUL: An Istanbul court on Friday again handed a 10-month suspended jail term to world-renowned Turkish pianist Fazil Say during a retrial over social media posts deemed religiously offensive, his lawyer said.
Say, who was not present at Friday’s hearing, was also placed on a two-year probation, his lawyer Meltem Akyol told AFP, adding that he planned to appeal the verdict.
Say was originally sentenced on April 15 for allegedly inciting religious hatred and insulating Islamic values in a series of tweets he posted last year.
A higher Istanbul court then overturned the conviction on “procedural flaws” and a retrial was ordered.
On Friday, the 43-year-old virtuoso, who has played with the philharmonic orchestras of Berlin, New York, Tokyo and Israel, shrugged off his sentence. “Tomorrow, I will continue to live and to produce,” he wrote in a tweet. “By continuing to live, by continuing to think as a free man, I will produce even better work.”
Another tweet which prosecutors say explicitly insulted religious values, also questioned over the short duration of a call to prayer.
Say has accused the Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, of being behind the case against him.