Turkish court arrests two men over sexual assault in public upon huge reactions

Duvar English

In another judiciary scandal, Turkish authorities initially released two men in Istanbul who were accused of sexual assault.

Accordingly, 31-year-old Semir Tarhan and 27-year-old Ömer Konu followed 25-year-old woman İ.A. in Istanbul’s Beyoğlu district at 4 a.m. local time on Oct. 1. 

When the two men approached the woman and started assaulting her, bystanders intervened to save the woman.

One of the assailants wanted to get rid of the situation around by saying “(she’s) my uncle's daughter.” The other people responded “what if she is your uncle's daughter.” The suspects were then detained by the police.

However, the authorities released the suspects after their testimonies were taken. Meanwhile, İ.A. did not file a complaint against the suspects.

Several social media users said the woman might have been afraid that her personal information, such as telephone number and address, might have been revealed to the suspects during the process of the complaint.

The personal information of the complainants are put on the case file without any redaction and it is accessible to both parties in Turkey.

After the footage of the moments and the decision to release the suspects stirred a huge reaction in public, the police once again detained them, one in Mersin and one in Istanbul. 

This time, an Istanbul court arrested the suspects on charges of “sexual assault” and “deprivation of liberty.”

Meanwhile, it came to light that Semir Tarhan had a criminal record of “sexual assault”, “resisting”, “drug use,” “extortion,” and Ömer Konu of “sexual assault,” “intentional injury,” “resisting,” and “car theft.”

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