Woman kicked on Istanbul bus for wearing shorts ‘suffering psychological trauma’

Speaking to daily Habertürk over a week after the attack by now-arrested Abdullah Çakıroğlu sparked outrage across Turkey, the woman identified only as Ayşegül T. said she was receiving psychological therapy as she “cannot sleep alone or go out alone.” 

“His smiling face after he was initially released keeps coming to me as a flashback,” she said, adding that since the Sept. 12 attack she has been struggling with sudden crying seizures. 

She also noted a number of negative messages she has received in this period. 

“There were both good comments and negative comments. There are people on social media who said things like ‘you should have died.’ There are people who make heartless comments,” she said. 

The incident drew a huge reaction from the public, and on Sept. 18 Çakıroğlu was detained on assault charges pressed by the victim. He was released after a prosecutor decided that his act of “actual bodily harm” did not fall into the category of an offense that would require an arrest.

However, hours after his release Çakıroğlu was detained and arrested again after a prosecutor on duty charged him with “inciting animosity among society.” 

While he now waits for an indictment to be prosecuted, the Justice Ministry has moved to introduce an article to draft legislation stipulating heavier penalties for assaults causing actual bodily harm.