High school student faces jail for 'disrespecting Atatürk'

ISTANBUL

A 17-year-old high school student in Istanbul faces a potential prison sentence of up to three years after being arrested for his controversial actions involving a photograph of modern Türkiye founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

The student, only identified by the initials A.E.S., was charged under the "law on crimes committed against Atatürk," and the indictment requested a prison sentence ranging from one year and six months to four years and six months. Due to his age, the sentence was reduced by one-third, leading to a requested prison term of one to three years.

Furthermore, the Anatolian Chief Public Prosecutor's Office opted not to pursue charges of "inciting the public to hatred and hostility or humiliating."

The controversy emerged when images of A.E.S were circulated on social media, showing him wiping a photograph of Atatürk on the crotch of his trousers.

The indictment included a report prepared by the police's cybercrime teams, which noted that the offending post had been discovered during a virtual patrol activity conducted on publicly accessible resources on July 8.

On Sept. 20, A.E.S. was taken into custody by the police and subsequently arrested by the court. The indictment also revealed that the video in question had been recorded around two years ago and that A.E.S. claimed not to have known the identity of the person in the photograph as Atatürk.