A private security guard in the northwestern Turkish province of Edirne has been arrested on charges of insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on social media, the Artı Gerçek news website reported on Wednesday.
The 35-year-old security guard, identified only by the initials T.Ö., was detained by police from the Çorlu Police Department in Tekirdağ. He was subsequently arrested by a court after his interrogation at the police station.
It was not clear what messages T.Ö. wrote on his social media accounts that were deemed as an insult to Erdoğan.
Hundreds of people in Turkey, including even high school students, face charges of insulting President Erdoğan. The slightest criticism is considered insult, and there has been a rise in the number of cases in which people inform on others claiming that they insulted the president, the government or government officials.
According to the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) insulting the president carries a sentence of between one and four years.