Second day of the 'Newborn Gang' trial: What happened in the first hearing?

In Istanbul, 47 defendants accused of referring emergency newborn patients to the neonatal units of private hospitals they had pre-arranged agreements with, causing their deaths and generating illicit profit, appeared before a judge for the first time yesterday (November 18).

The trial of the 'baby killers' will continue today. The case, which has become a major agenda item in Turkey, is set to begin at 10:00 AM.

WHAT HAPPENED IN THE FIRST HEARING?

The hearing, held by the Bakırköy 22nd High Criminal Court in the courthouse conference hall, was attended by 22 detained defendants, including the detained defendant Fırat Sarı, 8 of whom are women, as well as 19 non-detained defendants and the lawyers of the parties. Some non-detained defendants connected to the hearing via the Audio and Video Information System (SEGBİS) from the courthouses in their respective cities.

In the hearing, which resumed after a technical failure in the SEGBİS system was resolved, Union of Turkish Bar Associations (TBB) President Erinç Sağkan, Istanbul Bar Association President İbrahim Kaboğlu, lawyers for some victim families who were not complainants in the case, and lawyers for some non-governmental organizations and political parties requested to join the case.

The prosecutor requested that the requests to join be rejected on the grounds that they were not directly harmed by the crime.

While some defendants stated they had nothing to say regarding the requests to join, some defendants and their lawyers also requested that the demands be rejected.

The court panel took a break to evaluate the requests.

Announcing its decision after the break, the panel rejected the requests to join from TBB President Sağkan, Istanbul Bar Association President Kaboğlu, lawyers for some victim families who were not complainants, and some non-governmental organizations and political parties.

Following this, the court began taking the defendants' testimonies.

The presiding judge announced that the testimony of the detained defendant Fırat Sarı, who is considered the leader of the organization, would be taken last.

"EVERY HOSPITAL OWNER WANTS TO MAKE MONEY"

In his defense, one of the detained defendants, nurse Hakan Doğukan Taşçı, stated that he accepted one or two of the actions he performed and gave his statement honestly, but denied the accusations leveled against him on certain issues.

Taşçı stated that he did not accept the expert report, arguing that the case consisted of many actions, contained many accusations, and that there were some errors and irregularities.

Claiming that all hospitals were inspected but that nurses bore the brunt of these inspections, Taşçı said:

"I haven't earned a single penny. In 70 percent of the hospitals, there is no doctor in the intensive care unit at night. If we intervene, they ask, 'Why did you intervene?', and if we don't, they ask, 'How could you not intervene?' They pressure Fırat Sarı to keep the number of patients high to earn more money. Every hospital owner wants to make money. We don't decide how many days a patient stays. The doctor decides. The Social Security Institution (SGK) pays 9,500 lira for a medication that babies need for lung development. If the hospital buys it in bulk, it costs 7,000 lira. The more you use this medication, the more money you get from the SGK. There was an excess of medication. I talked to Fırat Sarı about this. To sell these medications instead of throwing them away. He approved it too. Hasan Basri would collect them, bring them to me, and I would sell them. We did this selling business 3 times. The maximum commission I received was 4-5 thousand lira, but I know Fırat Sarı received 40 thousand lira."

Hakan Doğukan Taşçı stated that he intervened with babies from time to time in emergency situations, saying, "For example, a doctor should perform the intubation procedure, but when the doctor was not in the unit, I was the one doing it. The fuller the intensive care unit, the more money the hospitals make."

After his defense was taken, Taşçı was asked about the wiretap records in the indictment involving other defendants.

Describing the referral process of the baby named Micehelle Nwando Opara, who is listed as a victim in the indictment, Taşçı stated that after the referral, they handed the baby over to the night shift nurse, defendant Tuğçe Toptemel.

Taşçı claimed that Toptemel called him around 07:40 AM and said the child did not look well, but that the statements were contradictory and he could not understand that the child's condition was critical.

Noting that the nurse who took over the day shift later called him and said the patient was not well and her lips were purple, upon which he went to the hospital, Taşçı stated that when he arrived, he checked the patient and realized she had died within 10 seconds.

Stating that the patient was in extreme hypothermia when he touched her, Taşçı defended himself by saying, "That is my astonishment. The child was already dead, she had turned ice cold. The nurse should have understood this."

The hearing, which lasted approximately 10 hours, was adjourned until tomorrow to take the testimonies of the other defendants.

"WE WILL CONTINUE TO FULFILL OUR RESPONSIBILITY"

Making a press statement in front of the courthouse during the break, TBB President Sağkan stated that bar association presidents and board members from many cities had come to the hearing, and that many bar associations that could not attend had sent their petitions to join the case to the court via UYAP.

Sağkan stated that they were here to ensure that the requests of the TBB and the bar associations were accepted in a case file where the right to life of children is at stake, and that all those responsible, without exception, are punished in the most severe way by implementing a more effective and transparent judicial process.

Stating that despite their insistence and legal justifications regarding the importance of accepting the bar associations' requests to join, the court rejected this request, Sağkan said, "This does not mean we are giving up the fight here. We will continue to follow this trial as observers, and at the same time, we will continue to fulfill our responsibility by providing legal and technical support to the lawyers of the victim and complainant families so that a decision that satisfies us all in terms of reaching the material truth in the process is reached."

Istanbul Bar Association President Kaboğlu reminded that their requests to join the case were rejected, emphasizing that as the Istanbul Bar Association, as a bar association operating in Istanbul, it would have been much more important for their request to join a case being heard by the Bakırköy High Criminal Court to be accepted.

Noting that this case will be one of the largest collective cases not only in Turkey but perhaps in world health history, Kaboğlu said, "It is a dark page for us. There are few constitutions that explicitly impose an obligation on the state regarding the planning and supervision of health services. Our constitution clearly states this in its 56th article."

Arguing that they see that this obligation has not been fulfilled in both state and private hospitals, Kaboğlu said, "The hearing of this major case here is the result of such a system turning into a lack of system. In this respect, the lives of our babies and children have been darkened, and our babies have been torn from their lives. There is a serious threat to the right to life here."

FROM THE INDICTMENT

In the 1,399-page indictment prepared by the Bakırköy Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, it is stated that the criminal organization is led by the defendant doctor Fırat Sarı, and managed and directed by the defendant doctor İlker Gönen and 112 Emergency Call Center ambulance driver Gıyasettin Mert Özdemir.

The indictment notes that the main purpose of the criminal organization was to bypass the 112 referral system of the neonatal intensive care units they took over to ensure occupancy, manipulate the patient stages, and receive maximum payments from the Social Security Institution (SGK).

The indictment states that the defendants portrayed the condition of the baby patients as more severe than it was and ensured they stayed longer than necessary, thereby collecting high fees from the SGK and taking extra money from some patients' relatives.

The indictment states that instead of referring baby patients to hospitals that would provide appropriate health services, they were admitted to hospitals chosen by the suspects that appeared profitable for the organization, and that most of the profit was shared with the organization member defendants who were healthcare workers.

It is emphasized in the indictment that the main goal was not to improve the health status of the babies, but to obtain the maximum financial gain.

WHO FACES WHAT PENALTY?

In the indictment, prison sentences ranging from 177 years and 6 months to 582 years and 9 months are requested for defendants Fırat Sarı and İlker Gönen, to be applied 10 times for the crimes of "causing death by negligent conduct," "qualified fraud," and "establishing an organization for the purpose of committing a crime," and 11 times for the crime of "forgery of official documents."

For the defendant Gıyasettin Mert Özdemir, prison sentences ranging from 180 years to 589 years and 9 months are requested for the crimes of "causing death by negligent conduct," "unlawful acquisition of personal data," "fraud to the detriment of public institutions and organizations," "establishing an organization for the purpose of committing a crime," and "forgery of official documents."

Prison sentences for similar crimes are also foreseen for the other defendants.

The indictment also requests that security measures specific to legal entities be applied to the responsible hospitals and companies that obtained financial gain by committing the crime of "fraud," and that they be closed down and their assets confiscated.

Within the scope of the investigation, the licenses of 9 hospitals in Istanbul and 1 in Tekirdağ Çorlu were revoked, and the babies and patients receiving treatment in these hospitals were transferred to public hospitals by ambulance.

On the other hand, those who threatened the Büyükçekmece Public Prosecutor Y.E., who is conducting the investigation into the newborn gang, with death in his office were also arrested.

This investigation is still ongoing.

News Source: 12punto