TURKEY
Hurriyet Daily News
April 16 2018
İpek Özbey – ISTANBUL
A new draft law over cases of sexual abuse against children is problematic, as minors under the age of 15 could also receive a sentence of eight to 15 years for engaging in sexual acts with each other, according to Istanbul University Prof. Dr. Adem Sözüer.
The draft law was submitted to the Turkish Parliament last week.
“For example, there are two 14-year-olds and no force or threat is involved. Let’s say they have not had sexual intercourse. But, out of curiosity, they have engaged in some sexual behaviors with each other, such as kissing. [With the new draft law] the punishment for this could be a jail sentence of eight to 15 years,” Sözüer, who specializes in criminal law at the Istanbul University’s Faculty of Law, told daily Hürriyet.
The professor’s comments came after the government submitted a law on April 9 to hand down harsher penalties to those convicted of sexual offences against minors, proposing to increase the maximum limit of jail time from 20 years to 40 years and to introduce chemical castration as punishment for offenders.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.