The incident was recorded on video with a cell phone.
A court in Türkiye’s western province of İzmir ordered two high school students accused of burning a palm tree to plant 50 saplings each as a condition of their release.
The fire occurred at Nevvar Salih İşgören Education Campus Multi-Program Anatolian High School in Konak district. Students filmed the flames engulfing the tree and posed laughing in front of it.
Footage showed students applauding. “He burned it professionally,” one student said.
After the video circulated on social media and drew criticism, the İzmir Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation on its own initiative. Police juvenile branch officers identified and detained two students, referring them to the prosecutor’s juvenile crimes investigation bureau.
The students appeared before a judge and were released to their families under judicial supervision. The tree-planting requirement was imposed as a judicial control measure.
