Turkish authorities detained and imprisoned a 16-year-old boy on Tuesday for sketching a moustache on an election campaign poster depicting the country’s newly re-elected President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to media reports.
The young man from the southeasterly town of Mersin was allegedly charged with defacing the poster outside his home with a pen and painting “a Hitler moustache and writing insulting comments,” according to many media outlets supportive of the opposition, including daily newspapers BirGun and Cumhuriyet and private TV station Halk TV.
According to media accounts, he was apprehended after being identified by CCTV cameras. He apparently “admitted drawing the moustache” while denying penning the accompanying comments during an interrogation with authorities that took place at his house.
Taken before the public prosecutor he was found to have “insulted the president” and was jailed at a nearby youth facility, according to Halk TV.
Erdogan extended his 20-year rule over Turkey after winning the 28 May second round of the presidential election to embark on a new five-year term.
According to the justice ministry, “insulting the president” is one of the most common crimes in Turkey, resulting in 16,753 convictions last year.
With inputs from agencies
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