Father sells 12-year-old daughter in southern Turkey: report
Hürriyet
Businessman Y.A. was arrested. DHA photo
A father in the southern Antalya province allegedly sold his pre-teen daughter after signing a contract with a businessmen 40 years her elder, daily Hürriyet reported today.
The father received 5,000 Turkish Liras after signing the contract which stated clearly that he had sold his daughter and was paid the money “in advance." The contract also read that both the father and the daughter consented to the transaction.
The scandal was revealed when the daughter informed her teacher at school that she had been taken to a hotel and raped by the man who had “bought” her from her father. The teacher immediately passed the information onto local police. A judicial case, however, did not begin until yesterday because police had been unable to locate the businessman for six years.
The father said the 54-year-old man was a “known businessman” and had taken his daughter simply to educate her and give her a job in state institutions in which the businessman was allegedly employed.
The businessman rejected the claims, saying the father sold him the girl willingly and agreed to the contract in the event that the incident would cause further trouble for him.
The businessman also said the father was in need of money and threatened to kill the girl if he refused to buy her.
"I didn't do anything to her," the suspect reportedly said at yesterday’s hearing. "I didn't take her anywhere. Let them prove that."
The court then listened to the testimonies of the employees that worked at the hotel when the rape occurred, saying they assumed she was his daughter when he brought her in.
The location of the girl in question, now 18 years old, remains unknown.
The man accused of buying the girl was arrested by the court, while the next hearing is scheduled to take place in March.
