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Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) MP Meral Danış Beştaş has submitted a parliamentary question regarding the courts' and high courts' use of judicial discretion in favor of men and verdicts that change the characteristics of the crime in cases related to male violence.
Bektaş directed questions at Minister of Justice Abdülhamit Gül, referring to the incident in which a man beat a woman to death and the Supreme Court of Appeals overturned the 25-year prison sentence given to the man.
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"The sentence has been overturned by the Supreme Court of Appeals on the ground that the act of the defendant is within the scope of the offense 'malicious wounding.'
"The Supreme Court of Appeals, by ruling that the defendant should be sentenced with this charge, showed his position on the issue of male violence."
"Sentence was reduced"
"The defendant said in his statement, 'She fell and hit herself, she hit her head on the toilet, I did not take her to the hospital because she did not want to,' and unfortunately, this defense made its mark on the trial.
"The defendant lived with the victim for two days after the incident and did not take the victim to the hospital although the victim's condition was deteriorating.
"The court reduced the sentence without evaluating the findings in the autopsy report and then the Supreme Court of Appeals, in a painful verdict, ruled that the defendant committed 'malicious wounding.'"
"Does the increase in femicides disturb you?"
Bektaş has directed the following questions to the Minister of Justice:
-Are you aware of the mentioned verdict?
-Did your Ministry have an intervention in the ruling of the Supreme Court of Appeals?
-Are the reduced sentence given by the Ankara 12th Heavy Penal Court and the reversal by the Supreme Court of Appeals a result of the defendant's relations with the ruling party?
-Do the courts rule according to people's positions?
-Don't the findings in the autopsy report and the defendant not taking the victim to the hospital for two days constitute evidence?
-Based on which authority does the Supreme Court of Appeals change the characteristics of the crime?
-Doesn't this verdict by the Supreme Court' of Appeals justify the femicides?
-What are the reasons for not giving gender education to prosecutors and judges?
-Doesn't the increase in femicides in your government's term disturb you?
-What did or did not your Ministry do to provide deterrence regarding the femicides? (AÖ/VK)
