A
sexual abuse suspect narrowly escaped a lynch attempt by residents of a
neighborhood in the Fatih district of Istanbul on May 23, after he was
taken out of an Internet cafe where he was accused of abusing a
10-year-old girl.
The incident occurred after the 26-year-old
suspect, identified only by his initials Y.K., a customer at the
Internet cafe, approached the 10-year-old girl, who was also a customer,
saying he wanted to “help her.” After seeing that Y.K.’s
actions toward the girl were abusive, witnesses called the police and
some of them attacked the suspect. Arriving at the scene, police
detained Y.K., but as they were leaving the cafe the man was faced with a
crowd attempting to attack him.
As the angry crowd grew, police
called on additional teams to intervene and disperse the group in order
to exit the cafe and detain Y.K. Arriving at the scene with an armored
vehicle, additional police teams also failed to calm the crowd, which
was throwing chairs and other objects at Y.K.
Police resorted to
tear gas and plastic bullets to push the crowd back, and Y.K. was
eventually taken out of the cafe and driven to a nearby police station.
After
his interrogation, Y.K. was sent to an Istanbul courthouse. Denying the
charges, he was released by the court with a judicial control decision
pending investi