A 16-year-old was arrested for drawing mustache on Erdoğan's face on an election poster

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LeMan, a popular weekly comic magazine, came out this week with a caricature related to the arrest of a 16-year-old child because he drew a mustache on the photograph of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the President and Chairperson of the Justice and Development Party, on an election poster. 

The magazine had on its cover, a caricature where two policemen are drawing a mustache on the face of a child, a title that says, 'Justice in the Century of Turkey' and "The 16-year-old child claimed to have drawn a mustache on the photograph of Erdoğan on an election poster has been arrested."   

MP Danış-Beştaş brought up the case

A 16-year-old high school student was first taken into custody and then arrested in Mersin with the accusation that he drew a mustache on the photograph of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and wrote some curse words on an election poster. 

Green and Left Party Erzurum MP Meral Danış Beştaş had spoken about the case.

She had said, "This is a development that is just in line with what they are saying, namely that 'The Turkish democracy has reached a point that it is being taken as a reference in the world.' What did the President mean when he said 'We will continue to embrace all the 85 million in Turkey independently of the election results.' How should we see it, that a 16-year-old child is being arrested? Is this democracy? Is this justice?" 

Turkey has a strong tradition of comic magazines and LeMan is one of the oldest among them. It was started by a team that left Gırgır, the cult comic magazine of the country started in 1972, a best-seller both in Turkey and globally. 

The team leaving Gırgır started Limon first in 1985, and when Limon was closed in 1991 the same group of people started LeMan in 1991. It was the first comic magazine that did not belong to a large media group but was published independently. (EMK/PE)