Man to do 1,812-hours of cleaning in Istanbul mosque as punishment

ISTANBUL – Doğan News Agency

DHA Photo

A local court has ordered a Turkish man, who has been on trial on the charge of “negligence” in a Syrian worker’s death in a landslide at a construction site in the eastern province of Bitlis, will spend 1,812 hours cleaning a mosque because he cannot afford to pay his penalty of 27,300 Turkish Liras.

The Court for Serious Crimes in Bitlis’ Tatvan district ruled that Hilal Sabay, an ironsmith who has been on trial due to “negligence” in Halil İbrahim’s death in a collapse at a construction site near Tatvan’s village of Hanelma on Jul. 31, 2012, would clean a mosque in Istanbul for 1,812 hours as Sabay could not pay his penalty. The site in which İbrahim was injured was a hotel construction site, reportedly owned by businessman Cemal Elmas.

The court first converted Sabay’s penalty of 906 days in prison to a fine of 27,300 liras, then later to “mandatory work for public interest.” The work chosen by the court was the cleaning of a mosque. Sabay, who married with six children, has so far denied that he was a negligent party responsible for İbrahim’s death.

Sabay said he filed a criminal complaint against Elmas, as the latter had forced him to sign a contract stating that Sabay would work as a contractual worker.

Sabay, according to the court’s ruling, will clean for a minimum of two and a maximum of eight hours a day.