Turkish student to be paid 20,000 liras compensation for finger broken amid protest

Mesut Hasan Benli - ISTANBUL

Turkey's Constitutional Court has ruled that a university student should be paid 20,000 Turkish Liras ($3,960) in immaterial compensation for her finger that was broken when security forces intervened in a protest.

Elif Aydın Dost, a student at the department of biology of Karadeniz Technical University, gathered with a group of friends to speak with the university rector regarding fees.

First, private security guards tried to prevent them, but after failing, a gendarmerie unit led by the commander of the local gendarmerie station, arrived at the scene.

Reportedly, the gendarmerie forces intervened to disperse the protesters at the order of the commander.

During the intervention, one of Dost’s fingers were broken. Upon the criminal complaint, a court case was opened into the gendarmerie commander on charges of “deliberate injury exceeding the right to use force.”

The criminal court in the Black Sea province of Trabzon handed the commander a prison sentence of 11 months and 20 days.

However, since the sentence was less than two years, the court ruled for the suspension of the pronouncement of the verdict.

Following the court’s ruling, Dost applied to the Constitutional Court, demanding a compensation of 30,000 liras. The top court accepted Dost’s application and ordered her to be paid 20,000 liras of compensation for the broken finger.

The Constitutional Court also ruled for a retrial of the gendarmerie commander’s case and sent the dossier back to the court in Trabzon.