Michael Dickinson, cleared last fall of allegations that he mocked Turkey’s prime minister by portraying him as a dog, has fled the country after hearing his acquittal was overturned. Dickinson, fifty-nine, returned home to County Durham, England, after hearing a late-night TV report last week that said the acquittal had been quashed and a new trial was pending, The Hurriyet wrote.
“I was shocked. I couldn’t believe it. I was told by a woman whose husband had seen it, and I said, ‘He must be dreaming,'” Dickinson told The Independent. “I was sad to leave after twenty-three years in Turkey, but I don’t fancy another taste of Turkish hospitality in incarceration.”
A court acquitted Dickinson in September of insulting prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, saying that while Turkish values would consider his collage art an insult, protecting freedom of expression was an integral part of adjusting to European standards. Via (Art Forum)
