Turkish police detained 3 extra workers of a satirical mag on Tuesday, elevating the choice of other folks taken into custody over a caricature that allegedly depicted the Prophet Muhammad to 4.
The caricature, revealed in LeMan mag, drew a string of condemnation from authorities officers who said it represented the Prophet Muhammad and sparked an indignant protest outdoor the mag’s Istanbul workplace.
LeMan, in a observation overdue Monday, denied the allegations and insisted the drawing was once supposed to painting a Muslim guy named Muhammad and was once supposed to spotlight the struggling of Muslims.
The professional-government Yeni Safak newspaper mentioned the caricature confirmed “two figures imagined to be Prophet Muhammad and Prophet Moses – with wings and halos – shaking arms within the sky, whilst a struggle scene unfolds under with bombs dropping rain.” The impartial Birgun newspaper additionally mentioned the winged figures soaring within the sky have been interpreted by way of some as Prophets Muhammad and Moses.
Government on Monday introduced an investigation into the weekly mag over accusations of “publicly insulting spiritual values” and detained the cartoonist, Dogan Pehlevan, from his house.
OZAN KOSE/AFP by the use of Getty Pictures 
In a single day, LeMan’s Editor-in-Leader Zafer Aknar, graphic fashion designer Cebrail Okcu and supervisor Ali Yavuz have been additionally detained, the state-run Anadolu Company reported. Detention warrants have been additionally issued for 2 editors who’re believed to be in a foreign country, the file mentioned.
Overdue on Monday, demonstrators, reportedly belonging to an Islamic crew, hurled rocks at LeMan’s headquarters in central Istanbul and scuffled with police.
The newsletter apologized for any offense led to, however it also known as on government to behave in opposition to what it described as a smear marketing campaign and to give protection to freedom of expression.
Separate movies of the arrests, shared by way of Inside Minister Ali Yerlikaya, confirmed Pehlevan and Yavuz being forcibly taken from their properties, their arms being cuffed in the back of their backs.
“Those shameless other folks can be held responsible ahead of the regulation,” Yerlikaya wrote on X.
“You’re going to no longer get away from our safety forces or from justice,” Yerlikaya wrote in a separate publish.
“An act of annihilation”
However the mag’s editor-in-chief, Tuncay Akgun, instructed AFP by way of telephone from Paris that the picture have been misinterpreted and was once “no longer a cool animated film of Prophet Mohammed.”
“On this paintings, the title of a Muslim who was once killed within the bombardments of Israel is fictionalized as Mohammed. Greater than 200 million other folks within the Islamic global are named Mohammed,” he mentioned, announcing it had “not anything to do with Prophet Mohammed.
“We’d by no means take this sort of possibility,” he mentioned.
Police had additionally taken over the mag’s places of work on Istiklal Street and arrest warrants have been issued for a number of different of the mag’s executives, presidential press aide Fahrettin Altin wrote on X.
In a string of posts on X, LeMan defended the caricature and mentioned it have been intentionally misinterpreted to purpose a provocation.
“The cartoonist sought after to painting the righteousness of the oppressed Muslim other folks by way of depicting a Muslim killed by way of Israel, he by no means supposed to belittle spiritual values,” it mentioned.
Akgun mentioned the criminal assault at the mag, a satirical bastion of opposition which was once based in 1991, was once “extremely stunning however no longer very unexpected.”
“That is an act of annihilation. Ministers are taken with the entire trade, a caricature is distorted,” he mentioned.
“Drawing similarities with Charlie Hebdo may be very intentional and really being concerned,” he mentioned of the French satirical mag whose places of work have been stormed by way of Islamist gunmen in 2015.
The assault, which killed 12 other folks, happened after it revealed caricatures lampooning the Prophet Mohammed.
Agence France-Presse contributed to this file.
