Controversial Turkish Cypriot journalist and Avrupa newspaper editor Sener Levent has been sentenced in absentia to a year in prison in Turkey.

He had been put on trial in Ankara for an article entitled “the Kurds and us”, in which the court in Turkey judged he had insulted Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

This is the second such sentence he has received, having been convicted in absentia in August 2022 for “offensive” cartoons printed in his newspaper.

Avrupa’s front page on Friday said the Ankara court had “no authority whatsoever”, and that the newspaper “rejects” the charge.