The arrest of a high school student on Wednesday for allegedly insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has resulted in outspoken reactions from a number of civil society groups and human rights activists, with the decision considered an example of yet another move by the government toward a more authoritarian Turkey.

Police reportedly came to the school of a 16-year-old identified as M.E.A. in the Central Anatolian city of Konya and took him into custody while he was in class, in front of his teacher and fellow classmates.

While M.E.A was working as a waiter in a café in order to contribute to his family’s household budget. The teenager’s mother, Nazmiye G., complained about the decision via through the family’s lawyer, Barış İspir, and said she does not want to speak until the issue is finalized by the court. İspir has since met M.E.A in prison and has reported that the student wanted to send his best wishes to his family and friends.

M.E.A. is said to be a student activist who launched a Facebook page calling on high school students to stage a demonstration to mark the anniversary of the killing of a Turkish army officer by extremists 84 years ago. During a speech, he reportedly said, “We view Erdoğan as the head of theft, bribery and corruption [in Turkey].”

It was not clear how footage of the speech was made available to the court but a Konya judge said a police officer had recorded the teenager’s speech.

After M.E.A. was arrested at the Meram Industrial Vocational High School, he was taken to a police station for interrogation. M.E.A. was then referred to a court for arrest. After that, the 1st Konya Penal Court of Peace jailed the student on charges of insulting the president.

According to Turkish law, M.E.A. could face up to four years in prison.

In his testimony to a public prosecutor, M.E.A. denied the accusations and said that he had had no intention of insulting the president. About 100 lawyers signed a petition formally objecting to the arrest on Thursday.

Penal courts of peace were recently established by the government as a part of an effort to dominate the judiciary and ensure that the government is not held accountable for its wrongdoing. After the Dec. 17 corruption scandal — which implicated Erdoğan’s inner circle, some of his family members and several ex-ministers — came to public attention, Erdoğan was subject to mounting criticism for refusing demands to hold the corruption suspects to account or to help shed light on claims of corruption within the government.

PM Davutoğlu defends arrest, oppositions strongly critical

Remarks by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu on the issue appeared to defend the arrest of the 16-year-old for “insulting” Erdoğan, with the prime minister saying that “everyone, no matter who they are, should respect the post of presidency.”

However, main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has described the arrest as “an example of the ‘New Turkey’.” Referring to the recent court decision to return with interest a large amount of money confiscated from Iranian businessman Reza Zarrab, a key figure in the graft scandal, Kılıçdaroğlu said, “While a teenager has been arrested, the money of thieves is returned with interest.”

CHP Konya deputy Atilla Kart slammed the arrest, saying that the ruling reflects the fact that fear, oppression and threats are more prevelant than ever before in Turkey, going on to say that the sentence is a “message” to society.

Hasan Kılıç, a lawyer speaking on behalf of the İstanbul Bar Association, warned that no one in Turkey can feel secure under the current practices of law, saying that similarly to other unlawful moves, arrests and detentions have become a standard weapon of the government to intimidate opponents. “If you arrest that boy, then you [the government] cannot claim that justice and laws exist,” Kılıç commented.

Speaking to Today’s Zaman, Association of Human Rights and Solidarity for Oppressed Peoples (MAZLUM-DER) Chairman Halim Yılmaz said that the arrest of an adolescent is an obvious violation of the principle of the presumption of innocence until guilt is proven. “An arrest can only be made if there are legitimate suspicions against the suspect. Furthermore, if it is a teenager in question, then an arrest makes the situation worse and increases worries about the implementation of law and justice. Even adults should not be arrested without a fair trial. As the investigation is still continuing, no one should be declared guilty. The Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights [ECtHR] have made many rulings reversing similar arrests in Turkey,” Yılmaz said.

Speaking to Today’s Zaman, İştar Gözaydın, a professor of law and politics, criticized the arrest as yet another example of the present intolerance of any kind of criticism. “Arresting a 16-year-old boy is unacceptable in terms of basic freedoms…. A government need to be tolerant to all criticism, otherwise such a government is not democratic,” Gözaydın said.

Reminiscent of the execution of 17-year-old Erdal Eren

Maya Arakon, an international relations lecturer at Süleyman Şah University, pointed out that the arrest of a teenager who is not legally an adult violates the law and human rights. She also compared the court’s decision to the execution of 17-year-old Erdal Eren following the military coup of Sept. 12, in 1980. Eren was hanged at the age of 17, after having been purposefully given a false ID card showing him to be 18.

Treating children like adults before the law is a signal of a very dangerous course of events in terms of fundamental rights and freedoms, according to Arakon. “If there is an alleged charge, then a juvenile court should handle the issue. An arrest is a disproportionate response. The system has been transformed into one in which any dissenting voices are stifled. The political authority is shutting the door on full democracy. However, imposing pressure on society and ushering in an authoritarian regime poses the risk of social unrest,” Arakon said.

Emphasizing that people’s demands for freedom cannot be dealt with by the oppressive methods of the Turkey of the 1940s, Arakon added that the government should stop oppressing its citizens. “This arrest could be considered a part of a strategy by the ruling party to polarize society ahead of the looming general elections [scheduled for June 2015]. However, this is a dangerous game. It could lead to social unrest. If the feeling of injustice grows among the public, people may decide to take justice into their own hands. The law is not a toy that politicians can manipulate in compliance with their ambitions. I don’t think that Turkey deserves to be downgraded to the list of third-world countries in terms of democracy. There is a substantial demand for democracy in society, even from the grassroots of the [ruling Justice and Development Party] AK Party. Even if the teenager actually committed the offense he is accused of, the president should make a point of saying, ‘Let him go, he’s just a child’,” Arakon said.

Baskın Oran, a professor of international relations and a columnist for the Radikal daily, evaluated the situation with reference to an incident that he had experienced. “Once, a deputy openly insulted me and when I sued him, a court considered his words in the light of the right to freedom of expression. But when a child said something, he was taken from his class and arrested,” Oran told Today’s Zaman.

Akın Birdal, the former head of the Human Rights Association (İHD), said that recently changed laws have created a hostile environment for children in Turkey. “Either children are killed or they are arrested. The recent incident is an extreme point in the intolerance and violation of peoples’ rights. The arrest is a violation of the rights of the child. It is evidence of a despotic regime.”

Bozdağ: Minors should be tried without arrest

To protest the decision, CHP Deputy Chairman Levent Gök called Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ and asked him to explain the decision. Gök later told Hürriyet daily that Bozdağ told him that he cannot interfere with the judicial process, but he believes minors should be put to trial without arrest.