“ECHR decision in Akdas v. Turkey

ECHR decision in Akdas v. Turkey (no 41056/04)

129

16.02.2010

Press release issued by the Registrar

Chamber judgment1

Akdas v. Turkey (no 41056/04)

SEIZURE OF THE NOVEL Les ONZE MILLE verges BY Guillaume Apollinaire and conviction of the publisher hindered public access to a work belonging to the european literary heritage

Unanimously:

Violation of Article 10 (freedom of expression)

of the European Convention on Human Rights

Principal facts

The applicant, Mr Rahmi Akdaş, was born in 1958 and lives in Bandırma. He is a publisher and in 1999 published the Turkish translation of the erotic novel Les onze mille verges by the French writer Guillaume Apollinaire (?The Eleven Thousand Rods? ? On Bir Bin Kırbaç in Turkish), which contains graphic descriptions of scenes of sexual intercourse, with various practices such as sadomasochism or vampirism………………………..

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