ISTANBUL—A British artist whom Turkey had prosecuted for "insulting the dignity of the prime minister" with a collage portraying him as a dog has fled home after hearing his acquittal was overturned.

Michael Dickinson was cleared back in September 2008 by a judge who ruled that although his work Good Boy (2006) "had some insulting elements," it was still art. The piece depicts Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan as a dog with a leash bearing the U.S. stars and stripes and a nuclear missile for a tail. But after Dickinson found out the ruling had been quashed and a new trial was pending, he quickly caught a plane for the U.K., noting that he was expecting a trial to go ahead in his absence. "It has been a nightmare," he said.

Read more at BBC News.