An Istanbul court has sentenced Turkish-Armenian writer Sevan Nişanyan to 58 weeks imprisonment for allegedly offending the Prophet Muhammad in a blog post, according to today’s Hurriyet Daily News.

Nişanyan was charged with blasphemy after writing a post entitled, “[We] need to fight hate speech.” 

“Making fun of an Arab leader who claimed he contacted Allah hundreds of years ago and received political, financial and sexual benefits is not hate speech,” Nişanyan said in his post last year. “It is an almost kindergarten-level test of what is called freedom of expression.” 

The prosecutor was asking for one and a half years for Nişanyan on charges of “insulting the religious beliefs held by a section of the society.” 

The sentence cannot be converted to a financial fine, but Nişanyan has the right to appeal.