Pope Leo XIV, who paid a four-day visit to Turkey last week, met on Sunday with an Italian chef whose 15-year-old son was stabbed to death by minors in İstanbul earlier this year, holding a private audience on the final day of his visit to the country, the DHA news agency reported.
The pope received Andrea Minguzzi at the Saint Esprit Cathedral guesthouse in İstanbul. His son, Mattia Ahmet Minguzzi, died on February 9 after he was attacked in January at a flea market in Kadıköy following an earlier dispute with a group of youths.
Speaking after the meeting Minguzzi said he had written to the pope two weeks earlier requesting support for what he described as a mission of peace and brotherhood.
“He welcomed us today. I asked for his support for our mission of peace and brotherhood. He is praying for us, and that is the most beautiful thing,” he said.
Minguzzi said he asked the pope to bless his son and family. “Papa brought us together thanks to Ahmet. My greatest wish is that his memory continues to inspire peace. I thank His Holiness for granting me this honor and making one of the biggest dreams of my life come true,” he said.
Mattia Ahmet Minguzzi’s killing triggered a heated national debate in Turkey over how crimes committed by minors are punished and whether penalties for offenders aged 15 to 17 should be increased. Two minors, identified as B.B. and U.B., were sentenced to 24 years in prison, while two others under 18 were acquitted.
Because the convicted defendants were under 18 at the time, the court sentenced them under Article 31 of Turkey’s Penal Code. That provision requires lower punishments for offenders aged 15 to 18.
Aggravated life imprisonment becomes 18 to 24 years, life imprisonment becomes 12 to 15 years, and other penalties are reduced by one-third. The court in this case imposed the top of the range available for juveniles convicted of murder.
The case fueled calls from some parts of society, including the boy’s mother, Turkish cellist Yasemin Akıncılar Minguzzi, for tougher sentences for minors. Experts, however, argue that instead of harsher penalties, the government should focus on the social and structural factors that push children toward crime.
According to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), the number of youths in the hands of law enforcement for allegedly committing crimes rose by 13 percent in 2024 compared to the previous year. The figure reached 202,785 last year, up from 178,834 in 2023. The most common offenses were assault (40.4 percent), theft (16.6 percent), drug-related crimes (8.2 percent) and issuing threats (4.6 percent).
Meanwhile, after a prayer service at the Armenian cathedral and leading a divine liturgy on Sunday morning, the Orthodox equivalent of a Mass, at St George’s, Pope Leo headed to Lebanon for the second leg of his first overseas tour since his election as pope.