Court lifts probation on sexual abuse suspect teacher, case adjourned

DİYARBAKIR – Doğan News Agency

A court in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır has lifted the legal probation on a released sexual abuse suspect teacher, while also adjourning his trial, in a case in which he faces 72 years in prison for alleged offenses against six female students. 

The 37-year-old teacher, identified only by the initials F.Ö., was tried in the Diyarbakır Heavy Penal Court on charges of sexually abusing six female students aged 13 at a school in the Lice district of Diyarbakır. The court demanded a report from the Education Ministry on whether there an administrative probe had been launched into the suspect following complaints from students.

The teacher was assigned to the Black Sea province of Rize after the complaints.

Detained in March 30 after students complained about him to their counselor teacher, F.Ö. has been released pending trial under a legal probation, it was reported on Oct. 4.

According to the indictment prepared against the suspect, he “touched students more than once in order ‘to satisfy their sexual desires’ between 2014 and 2016 during classes.” It also added that the victims confirmed the occurrence of this abuse. The accepted indictment demands 72 years in prison for the teacher.  

After the charges were pressed against him, the suspect filed a criminal complaint against the victims, claiming that he was denigrated. The suspect also claimed that it was “possible for two people to accidently touch as in are all in a small setting,” saying his actions toward the plaintiffs did not go beyond the boundaries of “teacher-student relations.”

“For example, students fight and we might disperse them with our hands. The actions stated in the charges never happened. I am their brother, father and teacher,” said the suspect in his first hearing. 

He also said he blamed other teachers at the school, who did not know him well, for causing the issue to reach this point by “speculating on his intentions without actually knowing about them.”

Meanwhile, the counselor teacher, who was the first to learn about the alleged act against the students, was also present as a witness during the hearing and confirmed that she, along with a number of teachers, was a complainant against F.Ö., saying he had also touched them. 

Other witnesses said the suspect teacher “acted different from a normal colleague relationship.”