Assailants fire into air by house of sexual abuse victim after offender rearrested

The house of a 16-year-old sexual abuse victim, whose assailant was re-arrested after being freed despite being sentenced to a prison term, was attacked on Oct. 4 by two men who fired bullets into the air near her dwelling in the Marmaraereğlisi district of northwestern province of Tekirdağ.

The house of the victim, C.O., who lives with her Moldovan-origin mother, L.C., was attacked by the pair, whose identities remain unknown. The assailants, who arrived at the scene with a grey car with covered plates, fired 10 bullets into the air before disappearing. 

L.C. filed charges after the assault as the gendarmerie carried out an inspection around the house. Prosecutors have also initiated an investigation into the incident. 

Azmi Ergüney, the 73-year-old convicted of abusing C.O. when she was 12, was re-arrested on Oct. 3 after Istanbul prosecutors objected to his release on probation following the annulment of a law concerning the abuse of minors. 

The Silivri Court of Serious Crimes had ordered on Oct. 2 the release of Ergüney, who it had sentenced to 16 years, 10 months and 15 days in prison because the Turkish Constitutional Court annulled an article concerning the punishment of sexual acts committed against those under the age of 15.

According to the previous law, Article 103 of the Turkish Penal Code, all sexual acts committed against those under 15 were identified as sexual abuse. But in a May 26 decision issued following an appeal made by a local court, the top legal body ordered a change and set a six-month period for the change to go into force, with the expectation that it would be replaced with a new law to ensure there were no legal loopholes.

In its decision concerning the offense committed by Ergüney,...