Suay Karaman, an academic at the Ankara-based Gazi University and the general secretary of the Association of Academic Staff (TÜMÖD), was sentenced on Friday to 11 months, 20 days in prison for allegedly insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

According to the court Karaman in a speech during a panel discussion included comments insulting Erdoğan. The panel was held in protest of the long-disputed Sledgehammer case in İzmir on May 23, 2015.

Karaman denied the accusations by arguing that he only criticized Erdoğan and said he would appeal the decision.

In total the Ministry of Interior Affairs announced last month that 10.000 people are currently under investigation for terrorist propaganda and insulting senior state officials on the social media and in the last six months 3.710 social media users were investigated 1.656 of which were arrested, while another 1.203 investigations resulted in releases on probation.

With new state of emergency decrees issued by the government last month, police were given the authority to directly access information on the identity of Internet users.