It was deja vu for Musa Kart, a prominent Turkish cartoonist, when he learned that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had sued him — again. Kart’s newspaper, the left-leaning Cumhuriyet Daily, reported the news with the succinct headline: “He [Erdogan] did not forget the cat cartoon; now he is taking this cartoon to court.”

On May 9, 2004, Cumhuriyet Daily had published a Kart image that portrayed Erdogan, then prime minister, as a cat tangled up in a mess of strings, symbolizing “imam hatip” (religious schools). The Erdogan cat says, “No need for tension … We promised, we will untangle this mess.” Kart was acquitted after a lengthy process of trials and appeals. He gained added international attention in 2005, when he received the Courage in Cartooning Award.

The second court case was brought because of a Kart cartoon Cumhuriyet published on Feb. 1, 2014. This image referenced the corruption probe that became public in December 2013 and portrayed Erdogan as a virtual guard watching over two thieves. One thief tells the other, “No worries, our guard is a hologram.” Erdogan based his claims on charges of “insult, breach of privacy and slander.”

Kart appeared in court Oct. 23 and was acquitted on all charges. Meanwhile, among the corruption probe's 209 suspects, not one was charged or tried in a court of law. Kart’s speech in his defense was forceful. He said, “I drew many caricatures during the corruption scandal, but not to insult anyone, just to portray the realities of the day. What we saw was injustice and lawlessness.” Kart continued, “I feel like we are in a cartoon now. I must say it is quite funny that while all charges against the corruption suspects have been dropped, I am the only one here sitting as the accused.”