Story By: Feza Uzay, Sub-Editor: Marija Stojkoska, Agency: Newsflash
A Turkish mother has been jailed for 11 years for fatally punching her three-year-old daughter in the gut for being naughty and causing internal bleeding.
Meryem Dogan, 27, from the district of Cerkezkoy in the Turkish province of Tekirdag, punched her daughter Sukran Nur Ipek, from her first husband Yakup Ipek, in the stomach in March 2020.
Sukran Nur, who started to complain of stomach ache and nausea after suffering the blow, was taken to Cerkezkoy State Hospital by her mother and second husband, identified by his initials M.A.D., when she collapsed the next morning.
Despite the doctors’ best efforts, little Sukran Nur could not be saved.
During the autopsy, it was determined that the child died of internal bleeding and her death was listed as suspicious.
Meryem Dogan and M.A.D. were subsequently arrested and the mother was charged with deliberately causing death as a result of injury while her husband was released.
The defendant told the Corlu 1st High Criminal Court that she had no intention of killing her daughter, and that if she wanted to, she would have done it before.
The victim’s father said: “I went [to the hospital] to collect my daughter’s body. When I took her in my arms, I realised that she had bruises all over her body. In her first statement, Meryem said that the child is hers therefore she could beat her as she likes.”
She was sentenced to 14 years in prison, which was reduced to 11 years and eight months after the court took her background and good behaviour while in custody into account.
In Turkish law, a ‘good conduct’ reduction is used at the discretion of the judge.
Also known as ‘reputation discount’, the defendant’s background and how he or she acted after the crime was committed and during the trial are taken into account for a possible reduction of the sentence.
