In a decision handed down by the Istanbul 69th Criminal Court of First Instance last week, Dr. Şebnem Korur Fincancı—an internationally renowned Turkish forensic physician and expert on the investigation and documentation of torture—was acquitted of charges of “publicly insulting the Turkish state.”

The charges brought against Dr. Korur Fincancı stemmed from an interview she gave on YouTube in which she was asked to provide her expert opinion about photos of Orhan İnandı, an educator in Krygyzstan who was seized by Turkish intelligence forces in a special operation and brought to Turkey. After Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced on state television that Mr. İnandı had been brought to Turkey to stand trial while holding a photo of him in handcuffs in which he was holding his significantly swollen hand with his other hand and had visibly lost weight, other digital images of him in a prison yard emerged. In the interview, Dr. Korur Fincancı said that the digital images displayed physical signs and symptoms of injury or harm to Mr. İnandı that could have been caused by torture.