An investigation has been launched into the Bağcılar Teaching and Research Hospital in İstanbul on grounds that staff members covered up the cases of 392 minors who became pregnant as a result of sexual abuse, Turkish media reports said on Monday.
Most of the girls are said to be Syrians.
The investigation of the hospital was launched after police were notified of the alleged failure of the hospital’s staff to inform authorities about the cases of the 392 minors.
The Bakırköy Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office launched the investigation into 59 of the hospital’s healthcare workers on charges of failing to notify the relevant authorities of a criminal offense.
A similar scandal also took place at İstanbul’s Kanuni Sultan Süleyman Teaching and Research Hospital involving 115 pregnant minors last year.
Last October İclal Nergis, a social services expert at the hospital, notified police that 115 pregnant minors, 39 of whom were Syrian, were accepted as patients by the hospital within the space of five months in 2017 and that hospital administrators failed to take any legal action concerning the girls, who were all below the age of 18. Thirty-eight of them were even younger than 15.
Following this, an investigation was launched into two officials at the hospital on charges of failing to notify the relevant authorities about a crime and the sexual abuse of a child.
The trial of the hospital’s deputy chief physician and social services expert began at the Küçükçekmece 20th Penal Court of First Instance in İstanbul on July 3.