A Turkish court has sentenced pop star Serdar Ortaç to ten months in prison for promoting illegal gambling. The singer also received a ten-dollar fine, with the ruling postponed. Authorities investigated Ortaç and a group of celebrities for endorsing illegal gambling websites.
On February 25, a Turkish court sentenced the pop star Serdar Ortaç to ten months in prison. The court also fined him 400 Turkish liras (about $10) for promoting illegal gambling and postponed the verdict.
The opinion of the prosecutor looks for a prison sentence of up to three years for Ortaç on charges of promoting and advertising illegal gambling. Moreover, the court ruled to life the judicial control order.
Among a group of celebrities and social media influencers, Ortaç was among that were under investigation by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office for allegations of promoting illegal gambling.
Authorities referred Ortaç and social media personality Mehmet Ali Erbil to court with a request for their arrest. The court instead imposed house arrest as a judicial control measure.
Lawyer of Ortaç filed an appeal with the Istanbul High Criminal Court to lift the house arrest decision. The court ruled to remove the house arrest measure after reviewing the appeal.
On January 8, authorities arrested influencer Kerimcan Durmaz on the same charges. 44 days later, the court released him as Durmaz testified that he was not aware of the advertisement on an LED screen in the background of one of his video blogs.
