Woman complains about harassment, prosecutor says, ‘Such things happen in marriage'

"No form of violence can be a social value" (by csgorelarsiv/Hale Güzin Kızılaslan)

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"I have known him since primary school. It was a love marriage. I didn't think that he would make me go through all these. He inflicted violence on me all through our marriage. Now, he wants to take my child away from me. I know it, it is not because he cares about our child, he does it just to torture me. I don't want my child to be given to this man."

Living in İstanbul, Sibel G. has divorced her husband who systematically inflicted physical and psychological violence on her.

Prosecutor didn't see the complaint

Sibel says that her ex-husband harassed her for several times when he came to the house to see their 3-year-old child.

She talked to the prosecutor at the Gaziosmanpaşa Courthouse, but the prosecutor covered up the issue, she tells bianet further:

"He beat me when I was pregnant, he battered me. I thought that he would perhaps get a little better, but he didn't. And I decided to divorce him. We had a divorce. He wanted alimony from me.

"He attempted to sexually assault me when he came home to see our child. When I talked to the prosecutor about this, the prosecutor said to me, 'Such things happen in the union of marriage.' We were not married and even if we had been, he could not treat me like this."

'He doesn't fulfil his responsibilities'

Sibel says that she is worried about their child:

"He almost never worked during our marriage, I brought bread home. He would sleep all day long. We didn't have breakfast together once. He made me pay his credit card spending during the restraining period, he doesn't pay such a small amount of alimony as 500 lira to my daughter. I reported my husband to the police department, the prosecutor did not feel the need to take the camera footage, saying that 'it is the ex-husband, it can happen.'

"No court can give my child to him anyway. I am an economically strong woman. The court has allowed my child to stay with him once in 15 days and in July, but this is not a right decision.

"When the restraining order was still in effect, this man had the natural gas cut off. He did this to my baby. Now, who can expect me to sleep at night while she stays with him there?

"He cannot fulfil the basic necessities of life, like waking up and having breakfast. He didn't sleep on his birthday. He would sleep on the days of vaccination, I could not take him to the doctor check.

"I am addressing the court, children must not be left to stay the night with the people who cannot fulfil their responsibilities. I am sure that he won't be able to look after her." (EMK/SD)