Trial of Turkish pianist resumes on charges of infringing religious values

The trial of Turkish pianist Fazil Say is expected to resume in Istanbul on February 18. It began on 18 October 2012. Say, 42, is accused of insulting religion in citing a thousand-year-old poem on his Twitter account. It was a retweet sent in April 2012 of a verse in which the 11th-century Persian poet Omar Khayyam mocks pious hypocrisy which led prosecutors to charge Say with "explicitly insulting religious values". Religious conservatives have become ever more assertive since Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party, which has roots in Islamist politics, came to power a decade ago.