Turkish pianist Dengin Ceyhan was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in social media posts.
He had been in detention since Feb. 14. Known for his criticism of the government, Ceyhan played the piano during the Gezi Park protests of 2013 and supported academics who had signed a peace petition. However, no details have yet been released on the nature of the messages that led to his arrest today.
Born in 1991, Ceyhan is teaching at the Hacettepe University conservatory.
As of end of 2016, at least 10,000 people were under investigation on suspicion of terrorist propaganda and insulting senior state officials on social media.
According to figures released by the Ministry of Interior Affairs in December, 3,710 social media users had been investigated in the last six months of 2016, of whom 1,656 were arrested. A total of 1,203 of those investigations resulted in releases on probation.
