JINHA

 ÇEWLÎG –Calling the sexual abuse of a 16-year-old girl "consensual," Turkish courts have acquitted two of the eight soldiers in the Northern Kurdish province of Bingöl who repeatedly sexually abused a girl, E.A. The court has issued sentence reductions to the six remaining defendants.

 The case against the eight specialist sergeants in the Turkish army was originally opened with the charges of "sexual abuse" and "deprivation of individual liberty." The court has now decided to give reduced sentences to the six of the defendants who have been convicted, with the justification that the victim (a child) "consented."

 The six convicted soldiers' total sentences amount to 20 years between them. The longest sentence is 6.5 years; the shortest, 10.5 months.

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