The Turkish house Sel Publishing is under fire in its native country for releasing, in Turkish, William Burroughs' novel, The Soft Machine. The house, which won the 2010 IPA Freedom Prize--Special Award has been charged with obscenity under article 226 of the Turkish penal code and now Irfan Sanci, who runs Sel, is preparing for court.
Sanci, who is facing the charges along with his translator, is getting support from the International Publishers Association. Chair of the IPA's Freedom to Publish committee, Bjørn Smith-Simonsen, said that the case is "simply mind-blowing and disappointing," and the association is calling for the immediate acquittal of the two.
Article 226 has been a thorn in Sanci's side before; last year Sanci was brought up on charges of obscenity when he published, the Turkish edition of Guillaume Apollinaire's Adventures of the Young Don Juan.
