JINHA

ERZURUM –A Turkish court reduced 49-year-old convicted child molester C.U.'s jail sentence to 2.5 years yesterday. The court justified the ten-year sentence reduction with psychological reports showing that his victim showed signs of overcoming her post-traumatic stress disorder from the incident.

12-year-old E.A. went to buy beads for her mother when the store owner, C.U., sexually attacked her on March 11, 2010. A medical report recorded that E.A. suffered psychological breakdown after the attack. C.U., who was tried without being taken into custody, received a 12.5-year sentence for the crime "sexual abuse that results in a child's psychological breakdown" on February 22, 2012.

E.A. was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, experiencing nightmares and intense emotional distress when topics related to the incident were mentioned.

After E.A. (now nearly 16) began showing improvement in her psychological state through years of therapy, the Supreme Court revoked the court's decision in January 13, 2014, with the justification that the sentence was tied to the degree of the victim's psychological damage.

Sentence reductions for rapists, murderers of women and sexual assault perpetrators are a common occurrence in Turkey. Women's groups accuse the state of encouraging gendered violence by providing near-immunity to perpetrators through various legal procedures.

The case was reopened. The court ruled yesterday to change the sentence to "child sexual abuse" (removing the reference to psychological damage). C.U. received the lower limit sentence for this crime, which including the sentence reduction for the girl's psychological improvement results in a total of two years, six months.

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