16 y.o. Arrested For “Insulting the President”

M.E.A., a 16 year old child has been arrested for charges related to “insulting the president” in the central province of Konya. 

The boy has been detained after making a press statement to commemorate the death of Mustafa Fehmi Kubilay - a Turkish teacher and a Lieutenant killed by a group of extremist in 1930 and considered a "Martyr of the Turkish Revolution”.  

“As a last word, progressivist high school students say that we don’t see Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as the president of this country but the head of theft, bribery and corruption as well as the owner of unlawfully-constructed [presidential] palace [in Ankara],” the boy reportedly said in the press statement. 

“I read it by my own will” 

In his defense, M.E.A. told the court that they wrote the statement himself and read it by his own will. While he admitted that he said the aforementioned words, he claimed that they were not insults. 

Barış İspir, the boy’s attorney, also claimed that the statement didn’t mean to intend. Even though the words could be considered within Turkish Penal Code’s Article 299 on insulting the president, his client’s must be considered and no arrest conditions were met. 

“No conscientious opinion”

However, Judge Nayim Durak ruled that the police blotter could be admitted as evidence and said that arrest conditions were met under “strong suspicion of crime”.  

The judge also added that even though the boy could be released within judiciary control measures, “no conscientious opinion” has been formed that the defendant boy would comply to the criteria. (AS/BM)

* Click here to read the article in Turkish.