Turkish doctor arrested over drugging children and implanting false abuse memories, journo says

Duvar English

Turkish authorities on Sept. 14 arrested Prof. Dr. Süleyman Salih Zoroğlu after several families accused him that he secretly injected ketamine to children after diagnosed them with dissociative identity disorder in his private practice and made them believe their families raped them, journalist Timur Soykan reported in daily BirGün.

Between 2011-2016, the doctor was the Head of the Department of Child Psychiatry at Istanbul Çapa Medical Faculty. Between 2010 and 2016, Zoroğlu worked at the Forensic Medicine Institution and he was the only expert on child sexual abuse.

Zoroğlu was dismissed from his position at the institution in Istanbul due to being a a member of the Gülen network, referred to as the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ) by the Turkish government.

He began to see patients who are mostly adolescents in his child psychiatry clinic in Istanbul’s Bakırköy district after his release.

He made these children believe that they had dozens of personalities and that they had buried the rape of their family members in their subconscious. The professor tried to convince some of the children under his influence to file criminal complaint against their parents. 

In some of the cases, he even persuaded the children to poison and kill their parents, according to journalist. 

He gave ketamine, a drug that is only given during anaesthesia in a hospital setting, to children at the same dosage as it is used in animals. 

Ketamine is a dissociative drug, which means it acts on different chemicals in the brain to produce visual and auditory distortion, and a detachment from reality.

The parents of the two children under the influence of the psychiatrist has filed a complaint against the doctor after their children became more and more distant from them and even filed a criminal complaint against the father for sexual abuse.

These children even attempted to harm themselves or even commit suicide. Most were relieved when they see the doctor. 

Zoroğlu even persuaded a family to let their children live in his house.

Hospital tests revealed that both children had been given ketamine.

The prosecutor's office realized that, just like these children, five other children had made similar complaints against their parents and had very similar reports by Zoroğlu in their files.

The police on Sept. 11 conducted an operation and detained the psychiatrist, his dentist wife, two psychologists working with her, the secretary of the clinic and a doctor working at a public hospital, who allegedly illegally supplied the ketamine drug to Zoroğlu.

Ketamine drug was found in a glass tube in Zoroğlu's house.

The psychiatrist testified that he prepared sexual abuse reports for over 40 children and explained giving ketamine to the patients as part of the treatment process. 

He defended that he did not suggest children to accept the abuse and did not accept the allegations that he threatened the families of the children and demanded money. Zoroğlu also claimed that he sent 14-15 students abroad. 

On Sept. 14, Zoroğlu and the doctor who supplied ketamine to him were arrested and other suspects were released under judicial control measures

Journalist Soykan reported that the prosecutor's office has identified at least 15 cases similar to aforementioned children. In the past, lawsuits were filed and people were arrested as a result of Zoroğlu's reports in cases in which children accused their parents.

The prosecutor's office believes that Zoroğlu diagnosed more than 180 children with dissociative identity disorder and the fate of these children and their families is being investigated, according to journo.