Comedian Deniz Göktaş rearrested after initial release, faces new charges

Comedian Deniz Göktaş, who has been in detention since July 3 for jokes made during his "Dead Sea" performance, faces a new arrest warrant. An Istanbul court had initially reviewed an objection to his detention and issued a release order.

However, following the release order, Göktaş appeared before a judge via the SEGBİS system (judicial videoconferencing). Before he could be released from prison, he was rearrested on charges of "praising crime and criminals." The Istanbul 4th Court of Peace issued this new arrest warrant, citing "risk of flight and tampering with evidence" as the grounds for the decision.

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I am using the ticket revenue from today, well, the second row is for municipal guests, so there is no revenue from there. Let's say the second row is safer. With the second-row ticket revenue today, we can hire a hitman in Turkey and have a rival comedian killed. The market is like this right now. Just the second row, and a Telegram group. You write 'Daltons' from there, there's quite a corporate communication. You deposit the money from Bitcoin and they don't even track it. You get a photo when they kill him, right abi? It had a twin, but it was my mistake. You deposit again, a magnificent system…

The charges stem from remarks made during his performance at the Harbiye Open-Air Theater. Göktaş had joked about using the revenue from second-row tickets to hire a hitman to kill a rival comedian, referencing a perceived market for such actions and mentioning payment via Bitcoin and communication through Telegram groups. He described the process as "quite corporate."

In response to the arrest warrant, Göktaş stated, "Turkey is becoming an increasingly impoverished country, the managers and ministers say the same thing, I am a comedian, I would not do such a thing, it contains purely humorous criticism."

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Turkey is becoming an increasingly impoverished country, the managers and ministers say the same thing, I am a comedian, I would not do such a thing, it contains purely humorous criticism.