A 16-year-old high school student has been arrested in central Turkey for “insulting” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan by accusing him and his ruling party of corruption, sparking angry criticism on Thursday from the opposition.
The boy, identified by his initials M.E.A., was believed to be a member of a leftist organisation, the Hurriyet newspaper reported.
He delivered a speech on Wednesday in the central Anatolian city of Konya, a bastion of Erdogan’s Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP), in memory of a young secular teacher killed by Islamists in 1930, according to the newspaper.
The boy, who was arrested by police at school, is now facing up to four years in prison if convicted on the charge.
Riza Turmen, lawmaker of the secular opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), denounced the arrest as a violation of the UN charter on children’s rights.
“Regimes taking children out of classes by police force and putting them in jail are fascist regimes,” Turmen, a former judge at the European Court of Human Rights, wrote on Twitter.
“This goes against the UN charter on children’s rights.”
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