ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey’s highest court has upheld an obscenity law that makes the possession, distribution or production of content involving oral, anal, group and gay and lesbian sexual encounters punishable by a term of one to four years in prison.
In the Constitutional Court’s decision, justices also upheld a fine of up to 100,000 Turkish liras, or $37,000, by a lower court against an unidentified man who had been caught by authorities with explicit images on a flash drive, according to news site Al-monitor.com.
The Constitutional Court was asked by the unidentified man to toss a lower court decision and the Article 226/4 of the federal penal code, which stipulates prison terms for those who store “audio, text and video material of ‘unnatural sexual intercourse.’”
But justices rejected the appeal 12-4.
The ruling sparked uproar in the Turkish media this week, Al-monitor.com said, leading the Constitutional Court, which defined oral, anal, group and gay and lesbian sexual encounters as “unnatural sexual behavior” to reiterate that its decision had not banned the performance of any sexual act and only applied to the recording, viewing and sharing of certain material.
