A well-known Turkish journalist, Sedef Kabas, has been sentenced to two years imprisonment for publicly quoting a saying about an ox in a palace.

The comment was taken to mean a reference to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in his lavish seat of power.

An Istanbul court was said to have found Kabas guilty of presidential insult and handed down a prison sentence of two years and four months, the MLSA lawyers’ association announced on Friday.

Following the decision, however, Kabas was released from pretrial detention.

In January, the journalist had denounced, among other things, the Turkish government’s harsh treatment of critics in a television programme.

There and later on Twitter, she quoted a proverb: “When an ox goes to a palace, it doesn’t become a king, but the palace becomes a stable.’’

She did not explicitly mention Erdogan or his presidential palace in Ankara.

According to the lawyers’ association, Kabas said in the courtroom that she had not insulted the president, but that she had the right to criticise the government.

That was also her duty as a journalist, she said.

-dpa/NAN