A Turkish court on Friday freed a 16-year-old high school pupil arrested for "insulting" President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, amid accusations his detention was the latest sign of a lurch to authoritarianism under the strongman leader.
The boy, Mehmet Emin Altunses, was released following a complaint by his lawyer, but he still faces trial in the future, the official Anatolia news agency reported.
Altunses was met by his parents as he left the main courthouse building in the city and immediately fell into the arms of his mother, Turkish television pictures showed.
But the teen defiantly declared his political activism would continue, saying he was not a terrorist but a "soldier" of modern Turkey's secular founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
"There is no question of taking a step back from our path, we will continue along this road," he said.
Altunses had delivered a speech on Wednesday in the central Turkish city of Konya, a bastion of the ruling Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP), where he accused Erdogan and the ruling party of corruption.
He was detained by police at school in Konya in the middle of lessons on Wednesday afternoon and immediately taken for interrogation by police. A court then ordered his arrest.
Reportedly a member of an online youth group, Altunses in questioning denied links with a political party but confirmed he had made the statements in question.
Altunses had accused Erdogan of being the "chief of theft, bribery and corruption".
Despite his release, Altunses still remains accused of insulting Erdogan and faces trial at a date yet to be specified. He risks up to four years in prison if convicted. The boy's lawyer, Baris Ispir, had submitted a petition for his release to the court, together with around 100 classmates who came from Istanbul in a show of support.
The boy's mother, an unemployed cook, expressed shock over the arrest, saying he had been detained "as if he were an armed terrorist".
"He is only a boy, his place is in school and not the prison," Nazmiye Gok told the Hurriyet daily. "I am not ashamed of my child. I am very proud," she added.
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