The trial regarding the sexual abuse of four girls at primary school age by 35 people for the duration of two years was continued in Siirt (south-eastern Turkey) on Wednesday (30 November). Ten of the 35 defendants are being detained.

It had been decided at the previous hearing on 2 November to hear two of the four girls who are all younger than 15 years of age and their mothers at the Wednesday hearing. However, they did not attend the hearing and thus the trial was postponed. The next hearing was set for 25 January.

Defendant Fahrettin Kuzu, one of the suspects in the case who was a teacher of the girls, was caught and arrested last week after he had been searched for 19 months. His file was separated from the case file in the previous hearing because he could not be found till then.

Joint attorney Pınar Dalkuş stated, "We demanded to merge the files but our request was rejected. We will have to reiterate our demand upon the other file related to Kuzu that will be tried on 21 December".

She added that the statement of defendant Kuzu could not be taken at the Wednesday hearing because of the separation of the files.

The court decided to keep the ten detained defendants in prison.

Lawyer Fatma Karaoğlu, joint attorney of the Human Rights Association (İHD), told bianet after the previous hearing on 2 November, "15 defendants tried in this case are under-age. Yet, we do not consider them as juvenile defendants". (...)

"The report of the Forensic Medicine stating that the psychology of the children was harmed is a positive development for the trial. However, the defence lawyers objected the report and claimed it to be insufficient. Therefore, the statements of the children will be taken again and they will be asked more detailed questions". (ÇT/VK)