Man sentenced to 8 years for assaulting old woman in southeastern Turkey

According to the Diyarbakır public prosecutor’s indictment, the man identified by the initials A. T. broke into the apartment of the 70-year-old woman identified as H. A. and sexually assaulted her. Upon the woman’s call to her relatives living in the same apartment, the suspect fled the scene. The police then caught the man following a criminal investigation into his belongings left at the woman’s house.

The woman later disclosed in her initial testimony she had kept the assault secret because she was embarrassed. In the hearing however, the defendant denied the accusations and demanded his release. He also shifted the blame onto the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), claiming he was threatened by the organization since he works for the state. 

The court first sentenced the suspect to nine years in jail before ruling that the action was against a person who was unable to defend herself and ruled for 13 years and six months in jail. However, the court then ruled the action was actually an assault attempt and ruled for six years and nine months in jail, which was then followed by a 10-year upgrade since the action caused the victim’s mental health to deteriorate.  

The court ruled for good conduct abatement, ultimately reducing the sentence to eight years and four months in jail while postponing the violation of the impunity of residence sentence of one year and eight months.