JINHA

ISTANBUL – A full year after the three children of Istanbul man M.Y. filed a report with the Turkish state prosecutor saying that their father had sexually abused them and their older siblings, the man has finally been arrested and charged.

The three girls, one 11 and two 13-year-old twins, filed a complaint against their father in the Zeytinburnu district of Istanbul a year ago. They said that he had sexually molested them as well as their other siblings—with the sexual abuse starting decades ago against their now-adult eldest sister. Turkish forces arrested the father, but released him shortly after, citing "inadequate evidence" and refusing to consider the three children's testimony as sufficient evidence to detain the man.

After the Forensic Medical Institute prepared a psychological report on the state of the children, the Turkish state finally arrested and started a trial against M.Y. He is facing a sentence of 15 years for repeated sexual molestation, which has resulted in the children's inability to sleep, constant crying and excessive eating.

The man's 37-year-old grown daughter testified in the hearing, saying that the man had repeatedly abused her and her mother, and that her younger sister N. had tried to kill herself due to the sexual abuse. The woman had to marry her cousin in order to escape the household and her father's abuse, she said.

(şg/fk/cm)