Sentences upheld for 4 defendants in the death of Alperen Sakin, who was left in a school bus

The 12th Criminal Chamber of the Court of Cassation reviewed the appeals filed by the parties against the appellate court's decision. The panel unanimously decided to uphold the 7-year and 6-month prison sentence given to the kindergarten owner and operator, defendant Yurdagül İşgören, rejecting the appeals on the grounds that there was no error in the judgment and no violation of the law.

The Chamber reviewed the parties' objections to the appellate decision. The panel unanimously decided to uphold the 7-year and 6-month prison sentence given to the kindergarten owner and operator, defendant Yurdagül İşgören, rejecting the appeals on the grounds that there was no error in the judgment and no violation of the law.

The panel also decided by majority vote to uphold the prison sentences of 6 years and 8 months for the bus driver Taner İşgören, 5 years for the bus attendant Dilara Kamberler, and 2 years and 6 months for the teacher Arzu Gülmez, rejecting the appeals against these sentences.

Regarding the 3-year and 20-day prison sentence given to kindergarten principal Bekir Gül by the appellate court for "causing death by negligence," the Chamber ruled to overturn the verdict. The court reasoned that he failed to establish a supervision and work discipline mechanism at the kindergarten and turned a blind eye to the employment of a person who did not meet the necessary conditions to be a bus attendant, thereby causing the death; therefore, he should have been charged with "conscious negligence" and the sentence was insufficient.

HE LOST HIS LIFE AS A RESULT OF NEGLIGENCE

One member judge on the panel issued a dissenting opinion regarding the decision made concerning İşgören, Kamberler, and Gülmez.

In the justification, the member judge drew attention to the chain of negligence in the incident, stating, "A small child, who could not protect himself and was in need of care and supervision, lost his life as a result of the separate negligence shown by the people responsible for this task. The fact that those who operate institutions dealing with small children do not act with this awareness and consciousness, and show negligence, cannot be seen as an acceptable situation or one that can be attributed to fate. Those who have a duty of maximum attention and care must be punished in the most severe way for showing negligence, and such cases should set a precedent."

WHAT HAD HAPPENED?

3-year-old Alperen Sakin lost his life on August 15, 2017, in the Çiğli district of İzmir, after being picked up from his home in the morning to go to kindergarten but being found unconscious in the school minibus where he had been forgotten.

At the end of the legal process regarding the incident, prison sentences of various lengths were given to the bus driver, the kindergarten owner, the bus hostess, teachers, and the school principal, as well as the district director of national education and 2 branch managers.

The İzmir 5th Administrative Court, in the lawsuit filed by the family for material and moral compensation, ordered the payment of 662 thousand 491 liras in material and moral damages to the family, while also finding the family 50 percent at fault for turning a blind eye to the child being accepted into the school without registration at 33 months old.

News Source: AA