Ministry puts more pressure into child abuse case

ISTANBUL

The lawyers appointed by Turkey’s Ministry of Family and Social Policies, have opposed a court decision to release five sergeants who have allegedly abused a minor in the southeastern province of Bitlis, as the ministry brings more pressure on the case.

The ministry also decided to provide psychological support to the minor, E.A., and her family after a social care expert met them, a ministry official told the Hürriyet Daily News yesterday. Family and Social Policies Minister Fatma Şahin said on June 19, “We will not stand silent by the rape case in Bingöl.”

“My friends [at the ministry] are investigating the issue in its all details. If need be we the ministry will be involved in the case,” she wrote on her official Twitter account.

Suspects are forbidden from approaching the minor’s school or house for six months and the minor will also be protected against possible threats coming from the suspects via phone or Internet, Şahin also announced.

Prosecutors in the southeastern Anatolian province of Bingöl have launched an investigation into the accusations that five sergeants sexually abused a 16-year-old girl. The number of suspects could rise, E.A.’s lawyer, Canan Çakabey, said, according to daily Milliyet’s report. The victim, identified only by the initials E.A., lives in the Solhan district of Bingöl and reportedly filed an official complaint last month in which she stated that five sergeants had repeatedly sexually abused and raped her over the last two years.