Dozens of men abused a child, all were acquitted! A child and family's search for justice

By: Sinem Nazlı Demir

In 2019, over the course of four months, more than forty men (this figure is based on the statement given by the child victim regarding the number of defendants) sexually abused M.İ., who was forcibly brought into contact with other men by the principal defendants, and who underwent an abortion after becoming pregnant as a result of the sexual abuse she was subjected to. M.İ. and her family are now seeking justice.

All defendants in the case were released.

In 2002, 14-year-old N.Ç. was sexually abused by 28 people and was held captive, deprived of her liberty.

After N.Ç. filed a complaint with the prosecutor's office, 27 of the 28 individuals were arrested, and the trial lasted 11 years. N.Ç.'s statements were taken without specialist support, and after hearings she was subjected to attacks by relatives of the defendants.

In the end, the charges of "deprivation of liberty" and "incitement to prostitution" against the defendants became time-barred, and no sentences were handed down for those offences.

The European Court of Human Rights found that the proceedings had not been conducted with due diligence, ruling this to be in violation of the "obligation to protect a child victim of abuse," and determined that the child had been subjected to secondary victimisation, finding violations of Articles 3 (prohibition of torture and ill-treatment) and 8 (right to respect for private life) of the ECHR.

A case similar to N.Ç.'s is now before the Court of Appeals. The family is waiting for a just decision, but they are not hopeful. 

'HE WOULD FIND PEOPLE FOR ME, AND THOSE PEOPLE WOULD RAPE ME'

The story you are about to read is that of M.İ., who was 15 years old at the time she was subjected to abuse.

The abuse began in 2019 and earlier. A.G., one of the principal defendants in the case and a distant relative of M.İ., began spending time around the school M.İ. attended, attempted to make contact with her, and one day approached her. 

M.İ. describes this process in the case file as follows:

"He said, 'My mother is inviting you over, will you come to our house?' Then we went to their house. The moment I walked through the door, he suddenly pulled out a knife. He held the knife to my throat. He said, 'If you don't do what I say, I'll kill you,' and then he raped me. He kept coming around the school. During that time he was constantly threatening me. He had recorded a video on another phone and would show it to me, saying 'come to me.' Back then, he would find people for me, and those people would rape me."

A.G., who abused M.İ., subsequently forcibly detained the child so that she could be abused by other men as well, took her to other men, and began blackmailing and threatening her.

M.İ. describes this period by saying: "He constantly threatened me by showing me the video on the phone. He kept finding people for me."

THE CHILD'S STATEMENT WAS TAKEN WITHOUT SPECIALIST OFFICIALS PRESENT

M.İ. became pregnant as a result of the sexual abuse she was subjected to and underwent an abortion. During this process she told her family about the defendants, and the family subsequently filed a complaint with the prosecutor's office. M.İ. was not seen by a psychologist before her statement was taken. Her statement was recorded without the specialists and pedagogues required by the Child Protection Law being present in the room.

A criminal case was filed in the court of first instance against the defendants named in the file — M.İ., A.K., M.O.K., H.Ö., and A.G. — on charges of "Sexual abuse, Incitement of children to prostitution, Facilitating or procuring prostitution, and Deprivation of liberty through force, threat, or deception."

At one of the first hearings in the case, the judge asked the child victim to recount what she had experienced and inquired about what was in the video used to blackmail her.

Fifteen-year-old M.İ., who had been subjected to aggravated sexual abuse by multiple men over the course of months, responded:

"Both they themselves and the men who came would rape me. In the video, there was footage of him raping me."

 The judge also asked the child where the abuse generally took place and whether she could remember the number of defendants.

 Fifteen-year-old M.İ., who had been subjected to aggravated sexual abuse by multiple men over the course of months, responded:

"We would usually go to the TOKİ area with the people they brought, to the deserted spots in our village. In my previous statement I said around 40 people, but I'm not sure if it was more."

FROM THE JUDGE TO THE CHILD: "DID YOU TELL THEM YOU DIDN'T WANT THE ABUSE?"

In Turkey, where more than 50,000 child sexual abuse cases are opened every year, the judge in this case asked the child whether she had "told them she did not want this" while the defendants were committing the abuse.

Fifteen-year-old M.İ., who had been subjected to aggravated sexual abuse by multiple men over the course of months, responded:

"I did say so, but they used violence."

THE LOCAL COURT ACQUITS ALL DEFENDANTS

The day of the verdict arrived, and the local court issued the following statement: "...that the victim was over the age of fifteen in 2019, the year the offence was committed; that in her statement to law enforcement the victim declared that she had engaged in sexual intercourse on multiple occasions at different times based on her legally valid consent but had not filed a complaint; that the prosecution of the offence of 'Sexual intercourse with a minor' allegedly committed against the victim, who was over the age of fifteen in 2019 when the offence was committed, is subject to a complaint..." — and on the grounds that "the child consented and did not file a complaint," the court ruled to acquit the defendants of the charge of "Abduction and detention of a child" and to dismiss the charges of "Sexual intercourse with a minor."

Accordingly, in this case, the defendants were acquitted on the "grounds" that the girl had turned 15 at the time she was subjected to abuse, with the declaration that "she consented"; the abuse was characterised as "engaging in sexual intercourse" rather than abuse; and the fact that she withdrew her complaint under threat was disregarded.

'PUT YOURSELVES IN THE PLACE OF YOUR OWN DAUGHTERS'

The family took the case to the Court of Appeals, and in the objection petition filed against the ruling, M.İ. addressed the court with the following words:

"If everything happened with my consent and I truly withdrew my complaint of my own free will, then why did I receive psychological treatment for years, both at the time of the events and afterwards? Like every child, I was afraid and intimidated. I was subjected to sexual abuse by countless men. All of the defendants threatened me and subjected me to aggravated sexual abuse, and in the same manner forced me into prostitution; as a result of this coercion, they subjected me to sexual intercourse with 40 to 50 people in exchange for money. You are still a child of 14, thrown among a pack of savage men, and you are completely alone. You cannot tell anyone anything. At that age, put yourselves in the place of your own daughters."

'MY DAUGHTER WAS ABUSED BY MORE THAN FORTY PEOPLE'

The family and their lawyer are seeking the acquittal ruling to be overturned and for the defendants to be apprehended and tried in pre-trial detention. The family's lawyer stated that this case should have been heard directly before a heavy criminal court, and described the acquittal of all defendants as unlawful given that the child was forced to withdraw her complaint under blackmail.

The father, who is fighting for justice for his child, stated that his daughter withdrew her complaint under threat, adding: "They told my child: 'We know where your sibling goes to school, we're watching. We'll abduct them too and do the same things to them. We'll kill you — you're already pregnant.' If they had been properly tried, they would have received 50-year sentences. They got my 15-year-old child pregnant. This child is under 18!" expressing his reaction to the ruling.

The father also called for the ruling to be overturned and for the defendants to be fairly retried:

"We are appealing the case. Turkey is not a state governed by the rule of law. My daughter was abused by more than forty people over four months."

'THE CHILD'S STATEMENT WAS TAKEN IN VIOLATION OF THE PROVISIONS OF THE CCP'

Speaking to 12puntoabout the case, Attorney Fırat Çiçek from the Istanbul Bar Association's Children's Rights Centre underlined that it is a legal requirement for the statements of child abuse victims to be taken by specialists:

"The Code of Criminal Procedure, to which the prosecutor's office handling the case and the local court are subject, clearly states that the statement of a child abuse victim must be taken by specialists in a specially arranged environment. The statement of the child abuse victim was taken at a police station in violation of the provisions of the CCP. And the court treated statements contained in a legally invalid testimony as valid, and ruled to 'dismiss' the charges against the defendants in a case involving child sexual abuse that has become systematic in the provinces."

'THE WORD "CONSENT" DOES NOT APPEAR IN ARTICLES 103 AND 104 OF THE TCC'

Also commenting on the concept of "consent" — which has been raised in relation to sexual abuse offences committed against children and which is incompatible with the principle of the best interests of the child — Çiçek drew attention to the "construction of consent" and added:

"The word 'consent' does not appear in Articles 103 and 104 of the Turkish Penal Code, which regulate acts of sexual violence against children. The legislator has used the phrase 'force, threat, deception, or any other means affecting the will' in place of the child's 'consent.' This means that where a child states 'I consented,' an investigation must be conducted into whether 'force, threat, deception, or any other means affecting the will' was present on the path leading to the construction of that consent. Indeed, in our case the victim child states that she was systematically subjected to threats and blackmail. The prosecution and the local court should have conducted the proceedings with careful identification of the fraudulent means that placed the victim in a situation where she was unable to resist the acts in question."

Editor's note: In the best interests of the child, the names of the child and her family, the details of the location where the offences were committed, and the names of the defendants mentioned in the file have been withheld in this report.

Below are striking statistical data on sexual abuse offences against children in Turkey.

According to TÜİK statistics, in 2023, 22,000 girls and 3,626 boys were victims of sexual offences.

In 2023 alone, more than 66,000 child sexual abuse case files were opened.

14,919 child sexual abuse cases were heard in courts. 7,088 people were convicted.

In 2023 alone, more than 10,000 girls were forced into marriage.

In 2023, 130 children under the age of 15 gave birth. In the 15–17 age group, 6,505 children gave birth.

In the first seven months of 2024, at least 14 girls were killed.