Chemical castration not to be implemented for every child abuse case: Turkish Justice Minister

KONYA

Justice Miniser Abdulhamit Gül has said that the chemical castration procedure, which the government is considering to introduce for child abusers, is not planning to be used on all of the offenders, but instead will be left to the discretion of the judge overlooking the case.

Decsion mechanism for the procedure would be “case-specific,” the minister told reporters in the central Anatolian province of Konya, where he held some official meetings.

Gül has also said that a total of 18,492 people were currently imprisoned in Turkey, convicted of charges of sexual abuse.

The minister has also touched upon an Istanbul court's March 9-dated decision to release the investigative journalist Ahmet Şık and Murat Sabuncu, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Cumhuriyet, in the trial on terror-related charges of staff from the newspaper .

"Turkey is a state of law. Everyone has to respect the decision that the court has handed. You may not like the decision, you have to respect it. If there is a wrong decision, this is solved in the legal system. We would only respect it," he said.