Turkish authorities arrested a 16-year-old boy on Tuesday for drawing a mustache on an election poster of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to reports.
Several media outlets close to the opposition, including the Birgun and Cumhuriyet newspapers and the private TV channel “Khalq TV”, said that the boy, who hails from the town of Mersin (southeast), was accused of distorting the banner near his house with a pen after he drew “Hitler’s mustache and wrote insulting comments.”
The boy was arrested after he was identified from the security camera recordings, according to the media. He was interrogated by the authorities at his home, where it was stated that he “acknowledged to draw the moustache” but denied writing the accompanying comments.
The boy appeared before the public prosecutor, who accused him of “insulting the president” and ordered him to be remanded in a facility adjacent to the juveniles, according to “Khalq TV”.
Erdogan won a new five-year presidential term, extending his 20-year rule, in the second round of elections that took place on May 28.
According to the Ministry of Justice, “insulting the president” is among the most common crimes in Turkey, resulting in 16,753 convictions last year.
