Age of ‘Insulting President’ Falls to 13

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A.Ş., 13 years old, has been detained by police raid over his Facebook posts, released following his questioning. It has come to light in prosecution questioning that his account was under police monitoring for nine months.

A.Ş.’s house was raided by Anti-Terror teams last night (February 23) and taken into custody. He has been released due to his young age.

According to record of statement entitled “Juvenile pushed to crime”, 13-year-old A.Ş. said the following to the prosecutor:

“I have an account of Facebook named A.Ş. I used the name Y.Ş. for a while but then I started to use mine. I didn’t share the post ‘o. ç.* Erdoğan, see this violence, it will eventually be accounted for…’ I rather share posts on video games. Sometimes my friends share post on my page since they know my password, I don’t accept such posts. Those are not mine”.

His lawyer Fatma Hopikoğlu also expressed that there is no evidence showing A.Ş. posted those.

The prosecutor has ruled release of A.Ş.

Denouncement by “anonymous user”

Everything has begun with bombed attack on Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) public meeting on June 5, 2015.

The next day, an “anonymous user” denounced of a post including swear under a video shared on social media.

Lawyer Hopikoğlu from Libertarian Legists Association (ÖHD) explained to bianet as follows how A.Ş. was “caught”:

“Police start monitoring the Facebook account but he can’t be found since A.Ş. doesn’t use his own name in that period. Afterwards, police start monitoring his sister’s account which is in contact with his account. They determine A.Ş. through his sister’s photos. Police are going to private school in which his sister works but trace of A.Ş. cannot be found until he recently has started to use his own name…”

This 9-month-lasting “monitoring” ended with raid on A.Ş.’s house. (AS/TK)

*o.ç. is abbreviation for "orospu çocuğu" means "son of a bitch" in English