A prominent Turkish economist said Sunday he was detained by Istanbul police as part of an investigation into whether he insulted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on social media.
Mustafa Sonmez, who has previously criticised the government over its policies, said on Twitter that he was detained at around 3am (0000 GMT), but released a few hours later.
Sonmez said the authorities accused him of insulting the president after he shared a video of Besiktas football club fans celebrating in a bar shouting "in your honour Tayyip (Erdogan)" with beers raised.
Besiktas beat Istanbul's Basaksehir -- which is owned by businessmen reputedly close to Erdogan -- on Saturday 2-1.
Sonmez was also accused of "provoking enmity and hate" in another tweet on Saturday after he wrote: "How wonderful, on March 31, you beat the AKP (Erdogan's ruling party); on April 13, you beat the AKP's football team, Basaksehir. Glorious Allah (God) gives and gives."
The Islamic-rooted AKP suffered a blow in local elections on March 31, where it lost to the opposition in both the capital Ankara and Istanbul, Turkey's largest city. The ruling party has called for the election in Istanbul to be repeated.
The DHA news agency reported that Sonmez had given a statement to the prosecutor, but the status of the investigation against him was not clear.
Thousands of Turks, from a top model to high school students, have been prosecuted on charges of insulting Erdogan since he became president in 2014.
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