HDP MP Submits Second Parliamentary Question After First Remained Unanswered

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Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) MP Meral Danış Beştaş has submitted a second parliamentary inquiry about the woman who was sexually assaulted by police officers in a police car in 2018.

The parliamentary question she submitted on January 21, 2019, remained unanswered.

The court made its verdict on the case on Friday (April 26), reducing the sexual assaulter's sentence because of his "good behavior at the hearings."

Danış Beştaş' parliamentary question said, "This practice is extremely important in terms of the abuse women and children are subjected to in the society, of explaining why these incidents are not prevented, and expressing the lack of solution of the problem."

Saying that the Ministry of Interior not answering her first question strengthened the view that the police are protected when they commit a crime, Bektaş made the following remarks in her question:

"The court reducing the sentence because of 'good behavior' in this painful incident is without a doubt possess the quality of multiplying the victimhood of the women and ignoring the women's and children's right to live in security in the society.

"On the other hand, the parliamentary question No. 7/8123 we submitted at the Ministry of Interior on 21.01.2019 when the incident was heard by the public has not been answered in this time."

Was the sentence reduced because the defendants are police officers?

Beştaş directed the following questions at Minister of Justice Abdülhamit Gül:

Are you aware of the publicly known incident and the case where the defendants are police officers?

How do you explain a police officer, whose duty is to prevent crimes, abducting and raping of a woman and stealing her money?

Is the reason for the court's verdict of reduction in the sentence because of good behavior that the defendants are police officers?

In the context of the Ministry of Interior not even putting the parliamentary question we submitted regarding a police officer whose duty is to prevent crimes becoming a perpetrator of the crime in person in its agenda; does the state protect the police officers? Why are the police officers under the judiciary protection?

What happened?

In October 2018, a taxi that was carrying 27-year-old I.K. from Uzbekistan as a passenger was stopped by the police officers Ş.Ş. And İ.K. around Yedikule area in İstanbul.

The two officers brought the women in the police car, where she was held for three to four hours. They then brought the woman to Silivrikapı area. Police officer Ş.Ş. Raped the woman in the car and took 1,400 Turkish liras that belonged to I.K. Meanwhile, the officer İ.K. waited outside the car. The two officers then dropped off the woman in Yedikule and went away.

After the incident, I.K. went to Aksaray Şehit Vedat Ulusoy Police Command, told police officer Y.S. what happened. The officer did not accept the application of the women, saying, "He is already very regretful, I will give punishment to him. You go and take a shower now. Have a rest and don't dwell on these happenings, forget them."

The woman then tried to tell what happened to Commissary E.S. He also did not accept the application, saying, "I am the commissary of the officer who did that. As a punishment, I will send him to exile."

Officer A.B. who was the on-duty commander that day, also did not order for legal action despite listening to I.K. Her money was returned to her here.

G.K., a friend of I.K. went to the police station yesterday, only to find out that no one knew about the incident. The officers noticed their commander after learning what happened.

Officers Ş.Ş. and I.K. were arrested on October 17, 2018.

(AÖ/VK)