Today, at Taksim Square in Istanbul, the women of the Education and Scientific Workers Union (Eğitim-Sen) protested the release of Hüseyin Üzmez, a writer for daily Islamic Vakit, who was accused of sexual abuse of a 14 year old girl. The women also protested the meeting at the Ministry of Justice where proposals to lower the sentences for sexual crimes were discussed.
Saniye Denli, branch administrator for No 1, read the press release with the fifteen women who participated in the activity.
Denli said they were not satisfied with Justice Ministry’s written statement, they also expected a verbal statement.
One of the proposals that angered the women was to reduce the legal marriage age to fourteen. Üzmez too argued after his release that according to Islam a girl who had his period was old enough to marry. Denli described the attempts to reduce the legal age for marriage as becoming a party to a crime.
Ministry of Justice launches an investigation about the committee that prepared the report
The Ministry of Justice has launched an investigation about the Medical Examiners who prepared the report that led to the release of sexual crime suspect Üzmez.
Halide İncekara, Istanbul deputy for the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and head of the subcommittee of the Human Rights Commission for investigating the problems concerning family and children, argued in her speech given in the Parliament that thousands of children and women had been victimized via such reports given by the Medical Examiner’s Office, similar to the case of the fourteen year old B.Ç.
The Human Rights Commission of the Parliament will discuss the issue of sexual abuse against children on November 6. The Commission will hear İsmail Barış, director of the Social Services for Children (SHÇEK), in order to be informed of director’s attitude in the Üzmez case concerning the sexual abuse of a fourteen year old.
Daily Yeni Şafak: “Shame on you man!”
Daily Yeni Şafak appeared with the headline “Shame on you man!” this weekend, protesting Üzmez’s brazen and mocking statements regarding the incident after his release.
Preferring to keep silent after one of his writers' involvement in sexually abusing a 14 year old girl was discovered, daily Vakit changed its attitude and started defending Üzmez, claiming that these were attempts to divert public’s attention from the Ergenekon case. (BÇ/EZÖ/TB)
