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No verdict has been rendered in the rape trial that has been lasting for 8 years.
The incident occurred in Gebze in 2009. The case opened in 2011. The defendant A.A. was sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2013 but wasn’t arrested. The Court of Appeal stating that there is “lack of evidence” and “some of her behaviors before and after the rape are not in accordance with natural flow of life” reversed the decision and said that the defendant must be acquitted.
Of the woman’s attorneys, Perihan Meşeli said, “The defendant received punishment but he wasn’t detained on remand not even for a single day”, and stressed that cases about sexual violence lasting this long and ending up with impunity is not uncommon:
“[The trial] taking this long is very exhausting. The defendant hasn’t been arrested since 2011 and the evidence were tried to be obfuscated, the woman was threatened to force her to give up the case.
“Unfortunately, legal proceedings proceed like this in rape cases. We are struggling against the system including the Court of Appeal which try women’s reaction through a patriarchic point of view.
“In these circumstances, when a woman is raped, she foresees how long the legal proceedings take after filing a complaint and this patriarchic perspective deter women from filing complaint”.
“Unfortunately the punishments in the law are not imposed. We don’t want an increase in the sentences, we just want them to be exercised”. (ÇT/TK)
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