Turkish police detain 3 more employees of satirical magazine over prophet cartoon controversy

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish police detained three more employees of a satirical magazine on Tuesday, raising the number of people taken into custody over a cartoon that authorities claim depicted the Prophet Muhammad to four.

The cartoon, published in LeMan magazine, drew a string of condemnation from government officials and sparked an angry protest outside the magazine’s Istanbul office.

LeMan, in a statement late Monday, denied the allegations and insisted the drawing was intended to portray a Muslim man named Muhammad and was meant to highlight the suffering of Muslims.

The pro-government Yeni Safak newspaper said the cartoon showed “two figures alleged to be Prophet Muhammad and Prophet Moses — with wings and halos — shaking hands in the sky, while a war scene unfolds below with bombs raining down.” The independent Birgun newspaper also said the winged figures hovering in the sky were interpreted by some as Prophets Muhammad and Moses.

Authorities on Monday launched an investigation into the weekly magazine over accusations of “publicly insulting religious values” and detained the cartoonist, Dogan Pehlevan, from his home.

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Overnight, LeMan’s Editor-in-Chief Zafer Aknar, graphic designer Cebrail Okcu and manager Ali Yavuz were also detained, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported. Detention warrants were also issued for two editors who are believed to be abroad, the report said.

Late on Monday, demonstrators, reportedly belonging to an Islamic group, hurled rocks at LeMan’s headquarters in central Istanbul and scuffled with police.

On Tuesday, dozens of protesters also staged a protest following noon prayers at a mosque at Istanbul’s main square, under heavy police presence. They held up a poster that read: “Insulting the Messenger of God and Islamic values is not freedom of expression, it’s Islamophobia.”

“I believe it is an attack against faiths and our values,” Ridvan Kaya, the head of the Ozgur-Der association that organized the protest, told The Associated Press. “This act should definitely not go unpunished.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also criticized what he said was “disrespect” shown to the Prophet Muhammad.

“It is a clear provocation disguised as humor” he said in a televised address. “Those who have shown insolence toward the Messenger of God and other prophets will be held accountable before the law.”

The publication apologized for any offense caused, but it also called on authorities to act against what it described as a smear campaign and to protect freedom of expression.

Separate videos of the arrests, shared by Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya, showed Pehlevan and Yavuz being forcibly taken from their homes, their hands being cuffed behind their backs.

“These shameless people will be held accountable before the law,” Yerlikaya wrote on X.

The controversy has once again placed the spotlight on Turkey’s poor record on media freedoms. The media advocacy group Reporters Without Borders has ranked Turkey 159th out of 180 nations in its 2025 Press Freedom Index.

On Tuesday, Media Freedom Rapid Response, or MFRR, a group that monitors media freedom violations, condemned what it said were “attacks” against LeMan and its staff, calling on Turkish authorities to uphold press freedoms and ensure the safety of media workers.

“In the name of freedom of expression and #MediaFreedom, we stand with the cartoonists and call on authorities to take immediate action to protect LeMan and its artists, and to put an end to the targeting,” MFRR said on X.

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Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey.