Man arrested over rape of woman student in Istanbul
ISTANBUL
The incident occurred in the Şişli district of Istanbul at 1:00 a.m. on Dec. 23 when a 22-year-old Turkish woman, identified only as A.Ç., who came to Turkey as part of a student exchange programme from Germany, left a café and arrived at a dormitory where she was staying. A man, originally from Mongolia, confronted her and tried to extort her while she was resisting, but the man attacked the woman and broke her back by throwing her out of a four-meter-high wall of a mosque. She fell on the courtyard of the mosque and was dragged to a woodshed where she was raped. The suspect ran away and took A.Ç.’s mobile phone.
The victim later filed a complaint with the police and was taken to a hospital.
The police launched an investigation into the incident and watched 380 hours of footage gathered from nearby surveillance cameras. They recognized the Mongolian-origin suspect, identified as T.E. During a house raid, they captured him and seized A.Ç.’s mobile phone.
The police said that the rapist came to Turkey as a tourist but extended his stay by working at a textile atelier.
In his testimony, the rapist confessed to his crime and said he was not able to refrain himself.
T.E. said he was allegedly swindled by a transvestite sex worker earlier and initially thought A.Ç. was the sex worker who he saw on the street. He later realized that it wasn’t her but could not stop himself.
He was later arrested by a court.
Meanwhile, A.Ç. was reportedly taken to Germany by her family and will receive treatment there.