A juvenile court in Turkey on Tuesday sentenced two teenagers to 24 years for the stabbing death of 15-year-old Turkish-Italian Mattia Ahmet Minguzzi at a street market in İstanbul, Turkish Minute reported.
The Anadolu 2nd Juvenile High Criminal Court, which handles serious felonies involving minors, convicted the two defendants of murder of a minor and sentenced them to 24 years in prison each. Two other teenage defendants who had been charged with aiding the killing were acquitted and ordered released.
Prosecutors have appealed the acquittals. Appeals are also expected on the length of the juvenile sentences by the defense lawyers.
All four defendants appeared by video link at the sixth hearing as the victim’s parents, Italian chef Andrea Minguzzi and Turkish cellist Yasemin Akıncılar Minguzzi, watched from the courtroom. Security footage of the January 24 assault circulated widely in Turkish media and fueled national debate about youth violence.
Minguzzi was attacked at a flea market in the Kadıköy district of İstanbul after an earlier dispute with a group of youths. He died in a hospital on February 9.
Because the convicted defendants were under 18 at the time, the court sentenced them under Article 31 of Turkey’s Penal Code. That provision requires lower punishments for offenders aged 15 to 18. Aggravated life imprisonment becomes 18 to 24 years, life imprisonment becomes 12 to 15 years, and other penalties are reduced by one-third. The court in this case imposed the top of the range available for juveniles convicted of murder.
The case has rekindled a national argument over how Turkey punishes crimes committed by minors and whether penalties for 15 to 17-year-olds should be increased.
Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç said in August that the government was drafting changes affecting under-18 offenders, citing public concern after a series of deadly incidents involving minors.
The Ministry of Justice is preparing a bill that would curb or eliminate age-based sentence reductions for serious crimes and, for homicide cases involving offenders aged 16 and above, allow judges to impose adult sentences without reductions based on intent, motive and record.
The draft also addresses parental responsibility by increasing penalties under Article 233 of the penal code for failure to fulfill family obligations related to care, education or support. The ministry says the goal is to deter neglect that can leave children vulnerable to crime.
Child-rights groups and legal advocates have urged lawmakers to focus on prevention and rehabilitation within the juvenile justice system.
In a joint statement signed by dozens of organizations, campaigners argued that detention should be a last resort and that courts should rely on social workers and child-rights specialists. They say rising violence among minors reflects systemic neglect and growing poverty and warn that removing sentence reductions would push more teenagers into long prison terms without reducing crime.
In contrast with the calls by rights advocates, the Minguzzi family and many others want harsher penalties. Despite the conviction of the two teenagers with the maximum possible sentence, the victim’s mother, Yasemin Minguzzi, slammed the ruling, saying, “I now only trust divine justice.”
His father, Andrea Minguzzi, called the verdict “an insult” and “very wrong.” Family attorney Ersan Barkın objected to the acquittals, saying evidence showed that the two cleared defendants helped surround the victim and block his escape and that the decision would not satisfy the public conscience.
According to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), the number of children brought to security units for allegedly committing crimes rose by 13 percent in 2024 compared to the previous year. The figure reached 202,785 last year, up from 178,834 in 2023. The most common offenses were assault (40.4 percent), theft (16.6 percent), drug-related crimes (8.2 percent) and issuing threats (4.6 percent).
