REPUBLIC OF TÜRKİYE MINISTRY OF JUSTICE

Minister of Justice Abdulhamit Gül said that child abuse upsets everyone and commissions put their efforts to eliminate child abuse cases once and for all. "All measures with regard to child abuse are on the table. We try to come up with a regulation where such cases are prevented completely."

Minister Gül went to Konya in order to participate in various activities and made important assessments there.

Abdulhamit Gül indicated that Konya left important marks on the civilization. Gül stated that Konya shined among other cities by its support to the AK Party and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and underlined that the government and local administration are honoured to offer services to the people of Konya.

When asked about the regulations on child abuse, Gül reiterated that commission began operating upon the command of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the aftermath of certain unacceptable events. Minister Gül indicated that aggravated penalties are imposed for such offences, child abuse upsets everyone and they have been working to eliminate such cases once and for all.

Emphasizing the importance of removing the causes of such cases, Gül continued as follows:

"Certain measures can be taken such as making individuals more conscious about it, giving education through the society or family and raising awareness, however we as the government together with Ministry of National Education, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Family and Social Policies as well as six other Ministries still work on this issue. In the Civil Servants Law, there are a number of measures such as that; such persons cannot be civil servants, those who are brought before the judiciary should not be employed in certain works and that these crimes should appear in the criminal record... We are working hard to increase further measures in the execution law related to the convicts, offenders that committed such crimes. We are having negotiations about the measure we call chemical castration which can be implemented as a result of the judge's consultation with health physicians, the personalization of each case-specific file and the regulation to be applied if it would be useful to implement such a measure to the concerned people. We evaluate all the measures. We are trying to prepare a regulation that will prevent such abuses against our children completely."

18 THOUSAND PEOPLE ARE IN PRISONS FOR SEXUAL CRIMES

 Stating that 18 thousand people are in prison for sexual crimes, Gül continued:

"There are 51 thousand 359 detainees and convicts for narcotic offences. There are 41 thousand 434 detainees and convicts for larceny offence and 18 thousand 492 persons are in prisons for sexual crimes. This is the total number. Concerning the mentioned issue, very intense measures are added to the agenda both for increasing the punishments and for increasing awareness in this regard. The important thing is to prevent such events before their submission to courts and police stations. We will take necessary actions to solve these problems in cooperation with a conscious society."