BRITON FACES COURT OVER DOG ARTWORK

Michael Dickinson, originally from Durham, produced a collage, Good Boy, which showed Recep Tayyip Erdogan as an animal with a stars and stripe lead and a nuclear missile for a tail.

The artist, who has lived in Turkey for more than 20 years, was charged in 2006 but acquitted two years later.

However, the case was then reopened and a new judge said he will give his final decision on Mr Dickinson's fate in Istanbul.

If found guilty, the 59-year-old will face a fine, imprisonment or deportation, but he remains defiant.

He said: "If it's a fine I'm going to refuse to pay it. If I pay it, that will mean I'm saying I'm guilty, but I was just expressing an opinion.

"The president of Turkey Abdullah Gul recently said that freedom of expression was very important in the press and everything else. Istanbul is the European Capital of Culture this year and to criminalise an artist when you are named the capital of culture just doesn't seem right."

Mr Dickinson initially fled back to the UK when the charges were brought, but found that he could not get a job here either and so returned to Istanbul.

The controversy began when he exhibited another collage, Best in Show, which depicted Mr Erdogan as a dog being given a rosette by George Bush.

Police seized the picture, and Mr Dickinson appeared in court in September 2006 and was told he would not be prosecuted. However, he then held up Good Boy outside the court in protest and was arrested for a second time.