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A 14-year-old boy was released from prison Thursday after he spent the night at a police station in Turkey after he was arrested for insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Facebook, local media reported.
The teen was detained in the Central Anatolian province of Kayseri when police officers stopped him at a local Internet cafe. He was released after a court determined Thursday he was 14 and not 15-years-old. Under Turkish law, children under 15 cannot be criminally charged.
Insulting the president of Turkey is punishable by law and those found guilty could face up to four years in prison. Authorities have not yet provided the details of the “insult.”
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The law against insulting the president of the republic has been in place since 1926. However, current President Erdogan has been accused of abusing it.
In the first seven months of his term, authorities investigated 236 individuals under the provision and indicted 105 of them. Erdogan has a team of lawyers who regularly file cases in local courts against those who criticize him.
In December, a 16-year-old was given an 11-month suspended sentence over a speech at a rally that criticized Erdogan over a major corruption scandal.
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Earlier this month Bulent Kenes, the editor-in-chief of an English-language daily newspaper, Today's Zaman, was detained on suspicion of insulting Erdogan in a series of tweets. He was released earlier this week pending trial.
Reporters Without Borders places Turkey 149th of 180 countries in the press freedom index.
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