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| The Grand Turk | ||
| 30 Syrian children sexually assaulted in Turkey refugee camp | ||
| 2016-05-13 | ||
| A total of 30 Syrian refugee children, aged between 8 and 12, have been sexually assaulted over a period of three months by a cleaning worker in Turkey’s Nizip refugee camp located in the southeastern province of Gaziantep and administered by the country’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD). The disaster agency confirmed the claims, which it was “following closely,” while the suspect faces up to 289 years of jail time. A cleaning personnel worker identified as E.E. “sexually assaulted” some 30 Syrian boys, the oldest of whom were only 12 years old, in the camp’s washrooms, daily BirGün reported on May 12.
The children’s families became aware of E.E.’s persistent attempts to assault the children after a boy, identified as H.İ., talked to his father about the attack. H.İ.’s father filed a complaint with the gendarmerie, bringing the matter to the attention of the authorities, Doğan News Agency said. The families of eight children filed criminal complaints, while the families of the other victims refrained from taking legal action, afraid of threatening their status in Turkey, BirGün claimed. Military officers inside the camp started investigating surveillance cameras and noticed that the suspect took the children to blind spots, providing evidence for the case. The 29-year-old suspect was arrested after the complaints in September 2015 and now faces a total of 289 years of imprisonment. The indictment underlined that although no evidence of rape could be discovered during medical examinations, the children’s testimonies were consistent and there were no grounds for slander, as the families and E.E. had no prior enmity with each other. Meanwhile, the suspect, who initially admitted to sexually assaulting one child, denied his earlier testimony, claiming it was “taken under pressure.”
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| Posted by:Steve White |