Turkey on Tuesday sentenced a 16-year-old youth to imprisonment for drawing a “Hitler mustache” on an election campaign poster of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
What Happened: The teenager hailing from the town of Mersin in southeastern Turkey was accused of defacing the poster of Erdogan near his home with a pen, scribbling “a Hitler mustache and writing insulting comments,” AFP reported, citing local media.
The report added that the youth was arrested after being identified by CCTV cameras. The Turkish officials interrogated him at his home, where the teenager reportedly “admitted drawing the mustache” while he denied writing any derogatory remarks on it.
As per Halk TV, he was found to have “insulted the president” after being taken to a public prosecutor and was jailed at a nearby youth facility.
See Also: Turkey's Erdogan Says Election Triumph Will Give ‘Message To The West' In Barb At US
Why It Matters: In power since 2002, Erdogan was reelected to embark on a new five-year term as president. President Joe Biden and many other Western leaders have criticized the increasingly authoritarian leader for his autocratic rule.
As per the justice ministry, “insulting the president” is one of the most common crimes in the Middle-eastern nation and resulted in 16,753 convictions last year.
Read Next: Erdogan's Ally Accuses US Of Meddling In Turkey Elections: ‘They Have Been Trying To Take Revenge…'
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