A case involving a man accused of insulting the Turkish President has led a judge to order a character assessment of Gollum from Lord of the Rings.
Bilgin Ciftci, a physician, was reportedly expelled from the Public Health Institution of Turkey in October after allegedly sharing a meme in which President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s facial expressions were compared to those made by the fictional character.
Failing to come to a decision in court, the judge ordered an investigation to decide whether or not an insult had been made against the president, the Today’s Zaman newspaper reported.
It came after the judge reportedly admitted to only having seen parts of the Lord of the Rings films in which Gollum features.
It is believed that two academics, two behavioural scientists and an expert on cinema and television productions will be involved in examining the character, who first featured in JRR Tolkien’s book, The Hobbit, in 1937.
According to Today’s Zaman, Mr Ciftci claimed he did not insult anyone and that Gollum was not a bad character.
In Turkey, insulting the president is a crime punishable by prison and if convicted, Mr Ciftci could face two years in prison.
The case has been adjourned until February.
Between August 2014 and March 2015, 236 people were investigated for “insulting the head of state,” the BBC reported.
