Supporters of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan wave flags after the coup failed. Featured image credit: Getty
The Turkish government has arrested 62 children and accused them of treason following the botched military coup last week, the Daily Mail has reported.
The teenagers, aged from 14 to 17, were studying at the Kuleli Military school, the oldest of its kind in Istanbul. Since being put in jail they have not been allowed to speak to their parents.
According to the families, just before the coup the children were invited to a school party but were made to parade with guns, dress in army uniforms and to guard their campus.
If convicted they could end up going to jail.
One mother of an arrested 15-year-old boy was desperately waiting for news outside Istanbul's Maltepe Prison:
"Our child has never held a gun before," she told the Telegraph. "They were used; they were forced to do this."
More than 60,000 soldiers, police, judges, teachers and civil servants have been detained following the attempted coup.
A lawyer who is representing three of the students told the Telegraph: "Some families haven't heard anything from their children for seven days - children at the age of 14 or 15. That's not something that should be happening, even in a state of emergency."
Families fear their children will be denied fair trial and were not allowed to attend a preliminary hearing in a packed courthouse where children were given just two minutes to testify.
The news comes as Amnesty International says it has emerged that suspected plotters are being tortured, raped and denied food and water.
The human rights group said today it had 'credible evidence' of the abuse and torture of people detained in sweeping arrests since the coup on July 15.
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Words by James Dawson