The Turkish government has announced that it is promoting a proposal for legislative reform to increase sentences in cases of serious crimes committed by minors, following the tremendous social impact caused by the murder of Mattia Ahmet Minguzzi, a 15-year-old boy who was stabbed and beaten in the street by two minors last January.
The terrible event took place on 24 January in the district of Kadıköy, a central district on the Asian coast of Istanbul; Mattia – the son of an Italian chef and a Turkish cellist – was walking with his friends through a street market when he was stabbed five times by B. B., 15 years old; once on the ground, the young man was beaten by another minor, U.B., 16 years old.
Mattia was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where he was admitted to the intensive care unit, but doctors certified his brain death due to the severity of his injuries. The horrific murder was filmed by cameras and circulated on social media, unleashing a wave of indignation in Turkish society. The two minors who took part in the crime were arrested shortly afterwards and remanded in custody. Turkish media outlets reported that the motive for the murder was simply that the two attackers were upset by a response the victim gave them.
Although the child’s parents, Andrea and Yasemin, called for the maximum penalty for the culprits, saying ‘a murder is a murder’, social indignation increased when it became known that, according to the Turkish Penal Code, both the prosecution and the judges can demand a maximum penalty of between 18 and 24 years in prison for each murderer (which the judge can also reduce to as little as 12 years, if he considers other mitigating circumstances), due to their status as minors: a situation that the family criticised again during a meeting last week with President Erdoğan, in which they again demanded that the perpetrators of the crime be tried as adults.
Other countries already impose harsher penalties for sexual assault or extreme violence
Speaking to the Turkish press, the Istanbul MP for the majority AKP party Müşerref Pervin Tuba Durgut said that Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan has already given the relevant instructions to revise the penal code, which currently establishes that minors can benefit from reduced sentences and that, under no circumstances, are they sentenced to life imprisonment, even in cases of more serious crimes such as this one.
‘However, this case has shown that the current legal system sometimes fails to provide justice,’ said Durgut. ‘I hope that this will change for the better, in memory of (Mattia) Ahmet,’ added the Turkish MP, who explained that in order to modify the legislation, the laws in force in other countries such as the United States, France, the United Kingdom or South Africa are being studied, where sentences for crimes committed by minors can be harsher in cases of sex crimes or those involving extreme violence.
Durgut also pointed out that the possibility of considering additional measures, such as criminal proceedings against the families of juvenile offenders – something that a part of society is demanding – is not being ruled out, ‘as long as they are contemplated under the law’.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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