Attacker of woman in shorts in Turkey released
Man who attacked a young woman on public transportation in Turkey’s İstanbul for wearing shorts has been released.
According to latest reports received today (June 22), suspect Ercan Kızılateş was brought to Anadolu Court House in İstanbul’s Kartal district for testifying before the court.
Though there had been a warrant of arrest issued against him over accusations of committing the crimes of ‘triggering hatred and animosity among the public’; ‘insult’; and ‘intentional harm’, he was released after giving his testimony before the court in Kartal Courthouse.
He defended himself by saying ‘the video footages show it very clearly that there was no battering involved.’
“Don’t you see the camera recordings? She attacked me,” he said.
In his earlier testimony with the prosecutor, Kızılateş had said that he found the way the young woman, Melisa Sağlam, was dressed as ‘too revealing and inproper’ and felt ‘turned on by it’, which he asserted was the reason for him to give a warning to her, emphasizing that it is currently the month of Ramadan.
Though Kızılateş was detained earlier on June 20th, it was later revealed that the warrant of arrest against him had been issued over his ‘tax debt’ and not over the assault.
Kızılateş will be tried without arrest.
Violence against women, both in domestic life and in public, have become a serious issue in Turkey especially over the past decade. Government's complete silence over the issue and the lack of judicial deterrents, however, have been widely criticized by the poeple and the opposition.