A court in Giresun on Wednesday ordered the hospitalization of Şaban Vatan, the father of Rabia Naz, who died under suspicious circumstances a year ago, to diagnose his mental state, the Diken news website reported.
Vatan claimed his daughter was hit and fatally injured by a car and that the accident was covered up by local politicians and Nurettin Canikli, a former defense minister from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
He was briefly taken into police custody on March 21 after his brother Muhammet Vatan filed a complaint with the prosecutor stating that he was threatened by Şaban Vatan, who he claimed was mentally ill.
Eleven-year-old Rabia Naz was found injured in front of her apartment in Giresun province last April and died immediately after she was taken to a hospital.
The prosecutor’s office declared that she had committed suicide.
According to Metin Cihan, a freelance journalist who helped the Vatan family speak out, the local police received a notice that day about a traffic accident involving a little girl.
Cihan says the autopsy report did not rule out the possibility of a traffic accident and that the circumstantial evidence backed up the father’s story.
Two Turkish news agencies also initially reported the incident as a traffic accident, adding that the unidentified driver had fled the scene.
On March 26 the prosecutor’s office announced that they had evaluated every allegation made by the Vatan family and had found no evidence to support them.
Şaban Vatan met with Turkey’s Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu in February.