Expert report deems kid choking on chocolate tube was ‘at fault’

ANKARA

A six-year-old Turkish kid who died last year from choking on the cap of a syringe-like chocolate tube was deemed “at fault over the incident,” according to an expert forensic report.

The case proceeds regarding the death of Mert Yağız Köksal, who lost his life while eating a tube of chocolate he bought from the canteen of his school in the capital Ankara.

The indictment claimed that Köksal’s death occurred as a result of “mechanical asphyxia” due to obstruction of the respiratory tract by a foreign object.

A forensic expert report included in the indictment noted that Köksal took the plug on the tip of the plastic syringe-like tube with his mouth and tried to remove it with his teeth.

“The deceased caused his death as a result of his own imprudent and careless behavior and therefore it was understood that he was essentially at fault,” it said in the report included in the indictment.

Özge Şimşek Çağlayan, the lawyer of the Köksal family, lashed out at the report, stressing that the deceased child as being deemed to be at fault would harm the public conscience.

“How can it be overlooked that it is not possible to expect the attention of an adult from a child?” she asked, adding that she will make the necessary objections to the report.

In the same case, the school canteen operator that sells the chocolate product and the manager of the company that distributes the product are also prosecuted as secondary parties at fault.

An investigation into the principal of the school where Köksal was studying, the teacher on duty, the janitor, and the doctor at the health center where he was taken is ongoing.

Another child, a seven-year-old, Umut Bilgi, lost his life in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır last year after being brought to hospital for the same reason.

He bought the syringe-shaped chocolate from a store near the school on Nov. 25, 2019.