A Turkish court has ordered the release from pretrial detention of all defendants in a case concerning the alleged abuse of student interns at parliament, citing the length of detention and the absence of a flight risk, Turkish Minute reported, citing the Birgün daily.
The case follows an administrative investigation launched by the Turkish Parliament in November 2025 after a family filed a complaint alleging the systematic abuse of high school student interns working at the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM).
The second hearing in the case was held at Ankara’s 57th Criminal Court of First Instance, where several defendants argued that they had been jailed due to public and media pressure rather than concrete evidence.
Defendant Durmuş Uğurlu told the court that he had been jailed for nearly two months “for a crime I did not commit,” while another defendant, Recep Seven, said he had devoted his life to educating students and was being unjustly detained.
Lawyers for the defendants claimed that the arrests were driven by public outrage following media coverage. One defense lawyer questioned whether the investigation would be expanded to include senior parliamentary figures, including former ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lawmaker Mahir Ünal, whose names had appeared in press reports.
According to Birgün, one of the most contentious moments in the hearing came when a defense lawyer for Halil İlker Güner claimed that a student intern had consented to the relationship. The statement prompted a strong reaction from the victim’s family and child rights advocates present in the courtroom.
Cemile Didem Karaboğa, head of the Ankara Bar Association’s Child Rights Center, rejected the consent argument, saying it was incompatible with the circumstances of the case. She also criticized the court for failing to immediately address requests for confidentiality and for allowing proceedings to continue without safeguards for the protection of child victims.
Karaboğa recalled explicit messages allegedly sent by Güner to the student, arguing that such exchanges pointed to coercion and abuse of authority rather than mutual consent.
The Ministry of Family and Social Services, which joined the case as an intervening party, requested that the defendants remain in detention. A lawyer representing parliament also argued that the institution had been harmed, noting that the defendants were parliamentary staff at the time of the alleged offenses.
Prosecutors in their opinion maintained that the strong suspicion of a crime remained and that judicial supervision measures would be insufficient, calling for the continuation of pretrial detention.
The court, however, ruled that all detained defendants be released, citing the duration of their imprisonment and the lack of evidence suggesting that they might flee. The next hearing was scheduled for May 15.
The decision attracted criticism from opposition figures. Speaking outside the Ankara Courthouse, main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Deputy Chair Gökçe Gökçen questioned the consistency of judicial practice, arguing that while politicians remained jailed in other cases despite having fixed addresses, defendants accused of abusing minors were being released.
CHP Women’s branch Chair Asu Kaya directly held senior state officials responsible for what she described as systemic failures in protecting children. Kaya addressed Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş, Education Minister Yusuf Tekin and Family and Social Services Minister Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş, questioning why oversight mechanisms had failed and why evidence such as security camera footage had been submitted incomplete or with delay.
“Children are being abused, and there is silence. Institutions are silent. The minister is silent. Aren’t these children under the responsibility of the Family Ministry?” she added.
