A violent thug who kidnapped disabled people and beat them brutally in a remote mountain shack before posting images of the abuse on Instagram has been released from custody.

Ringleader Firat Kaya had been sentenced to 10 years in jail for his appallingly violent beatings.

But a judge said the year he had spent in jail awaiting trial was punishment enough and set him and the rest of his gang free.

Sick Kaya had only been only stopped after a massive online protest.

In the court hearing held at the Kocaeli 7th High Criminal Court on 29th March, it was decided that the gang members should not have been charged with attempted murder.

Instead, the charges were changed to ‘deprivation of liberty’, ‘violation of privacy’, ‘insult and ‘looting’.

Kaya’s co-accused – Ersin Kam, Emrah Mutlu, Salih Oztopcuoglu and Murat Akdemir – had all been sentenced to seven years and 11 months in prison but also walked free.

The move has infuriated Didem Oezhan – lawyer of hearing-impaired victim Engin Elekci – who was tortured for Instagram ‘likes’ by the defendants.

Victims of tattooed Kaya include a woman whom he allegedly put in hospital and a man whom he reportedly battered when he decided he was gay.

It remains unclear why the authorities did not act until after the online campaign began.

Kaya, known on social media as ‘Firat Delikanli’ and whose age was not disclosed, posted several pictures on his Instagram account of people he had severely beaten before being detained by local authorities on 25th March last year.

In the footage, two of his victims, a man and a woman, can be seen with badly beaten faces using sign language to explain their predicament.

The man was identified as Engin Elekci, who was 33 at the time and who Kaya said was beaten because he was gay.

His bloodied face was posted on Instagram with a homophobic slur in the caption.

Engin, who is hearing-impaired and uses sign language to communicate, spoke to the authorities about the incident, which occurred in the north-western Turkish province of Kocaeli on Monday, 22nd March last year.

He explained: “I know Firat, he also suffers from a hearing impediment. He told me on 22nd March to go to Kocaeli as he had a job there for me.”

Engin continued: “I arrived in Kocaeli, where we sold souvenirs. However, while we were splitting the money we had made, Firat began to get aggressive with me. Suddenly, he and four of his friends kidnapped me and took me to a mountain shack.”

Engin claims that in the shack, Firat beat him brutally for hours before then dumping him at a bus stop and telling him to go home.

Local media reported that the woman who can be seen in the footage lying in a hospital bed with a badly bruised face was another victim.

The torturer posted several other images of unnamed victims with bruised and bloody faces.

An online campaign to get Delikanli arrested took off using the hashtag ‘#FiratDelikanliTutuklansin’, which means ‘detain Firat Delikanli’.

Social media coverage and Engin’s statement led to the Attorney General’s Office launching an investigation against Firat for attempted murder and kidnapping.

Local media said at the time that Firat already had over 30 violent crimes on his record, including extortion, fraud and sexual abuse.

Engin’s lawyer, Oezhan, is appealing the case. She said; “It is not possible to accept the decision, we did not expect them to be released. We will take the decision to the higher court.”