Istanbul court hands jail term to store employee, security guard for naked strip search
Ayşegül Usta - ISTANBUL
An Istanbul court on July 10 handed down a total of a 10-month prison sentence to a store employee and private security guard for strip searching a customer in November 2016.
The incident involves a 17-year-old high school student who was accused of stealing lipstick from a cosmetic store located at a shopping mall in Istanbul’s Eyüp district.
The high schooler was then taken to a storehouse by an employee of the relevant store and the shopping mall security guard, during which she was strip searched naked. The two defendants did not find anything on the high schooler, after which they let her go.
The 17-year-old then filed a legal complaint against the two people. “During the search incident, there were two male security staff at the place. They were only asked to turn their backs. There was also a camera in the storehouse. The store manager kept telling me I shoplifted. She hit my head and insulted me calling me a thief and impertinent,” she said in her testimony.
In its ruling on July 10, the Istanbul 25th Penal Court of First Instance handed down a five-month prison sentence to store employee Zuhal A. and issued a punitive fine of 3,500 Turkish Liras ($738). It has also handed down a five-month to security guard Semiha A. The jail terms given to both defendants were suspended.
