Two Turkish soldiers received maximum sentence in prison after they were convicted of raping a refugee woman from Afghanistan during expulsion from Turkey to Iran in January.
Voice of America Turkish edition said that the incident occurred in Turkey’s eastern province of Van on January 2 when at least eight refugees from Afghanistan were detained by Turkish guards after crossing the Iranian border.
A woman among them was allegedly sexually assaulted by two Turkish soldiers. After she reported the case to nearby Turkish officials, the two suspects were detained and later trailed at the Van 5th High Criminal Court.
The two soldiers pleaded guilty. One of them was given a prison sentence of 32 years and the other 37 years after lawyers who represented the refugee woman demanded the maximum sentences for the defendants on charges of “abuse of power.”
The court’s ruling had been made public recently although the trial was concluded in June.
Since the Taliban takeover in August 2021, the number of Afghanistan refugees in Turkey has surged and Turkish authorities regularly push them back to Iran or deport them to Afghanistan.
Many migrants have reported suffering abuse and ill-treatment at the hands of the Turkish authorities, particularly border guards.
Refugees have for years been crossing from Iran via precarious land routes into Turkey, many of them en route to Europe in a bid for a safer and better life, but Turkey has intensified security measures to prevent migrants to its soil.
The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR says there are over 100,000 Afghanistan asylum seekers and refugees in Turkey.
