Turkish prosecutors seek 70 years in jail for parents in child sexual abuse case

Duvar English

Turkish prosecutors have demanded 70 years in jail for a mother and stepfather on charges of having sexually and physically abused their two children, in a case that came to be known as the Elmalı lawsuit, Demirören news agency reported on Nov. 9.

The brother of the children's mother is also standing trial in the case, facing 30 years in prison. 

Last June, the children's grandmother filed a criminal complaint against the mother Merve A. and her current husband Rahmi A. on charges of sexually abusing their six-year-old and nine-year-old children. 

The prosecutor's office then consulted with the Children's Monitoring Center, asking their officials to take the statements of the children.

The children told the authorities that they had been sexually and physically abused by their stepfather, their uncle S.C.G. and their mother's boyfriends. The children explained what happened to them through drawings, which later leaked to social media.

The mother Merve A. and the stepfather Rahmi A. were arrested in the first hearing on October 16, 2020, but were released pending conviction in the third hearing on Jan. 5, 2021. The children were later placed under state protection.

During a hearing on Nov. 9, the prosecutor presented his final sentencing opinion (“esas hakkında mütalaa”) to the court, demanding that the mother and stepfather are each sentenced to 70 years in jail, whereas the uncle is given 30 years in prison.

The next hearing of the case will be overseen on Nov. 15 at the Elmalı Heavy Penal Court.

The children's case created widespread protest among the public at the time of its revelation in June of this year with the name Elmalı Lawsuit after the district of Mediterranean Antalya where the children lived.