A.B., a teacher of an İmam Hatip school for girls in Diyarbakır, Turkey was sued for sexually abusing his student. The teacher threatened the parent of the abused student with sharia law, saying "I prefer sharia judgement and would consent on a death penalty of the sharia law".
On July 2016, the father of the student A.D. reported to the Ministry of National Education that his daughter had been sexually assaulted by her teacher. The teacher was released after an interrogation by the prosecutor's office and was assigned to another school.
The teacher tried to intimidate the parents of the student via text messages so that they would drop charges against him. In the text messages he sent, the teacher named the secular courthouses of Turkey as "Tağut's courts", which means in Arabic deviating from the God's judgement. He said he would prefer sharia law, saying "I would consent on a death penalty of the sharia law".
The harasser teacher A.B. also turned out to had been sentenced to 4 years and 2 months imprisonment in 2000 for being a member of an Islamist terrorist organisation", and yet his criminal record had later been expunged by means of the decarceration law. The teacher threatened the reporter who revealed his background as well.
"NOT HARASSMENT, SEXUAL ABUSE "
The criminal charges against the teacher asked for his imprisonment up to 4 years for "sexually abusing a child". Although the prosecutor's office said there is no evidence for sexual abuse apart from the girl's statement, and that the act of the teacher is harassment, the Criminal Court of Jurisdiction ruled that the act is a sexual abuse.
In her statement, the abused child said that the teacher kept abusing her for 5 or 6 months and threatened her that he would kill both her and himself if she were to reveal it.
The teacher said that he was considering marrying the child and he got psychologically disturbed for what he had done. He confessed partially guilty and denied sexual abuse.
"HE THINKS SEXUAL ABUSE NOT A CRIME IN SHARIA LAW"
The attorney of the child noted "The defendant is married, and father of three. When he says he considered marrying the child, he means imam marriage as defined in the sharia law. The defendant was given a penalty of 3 months wage cut. It is so sad that child sexual abuse is punished by wage cut."
The attorney also noted that the school he was assigned following the first court is a high school and the students at that age can take him as a role model. "He does not consider sexual abuse a crime. He says 'It is a crime according to your law but not in sharia law. My relation with her was based on mutual consent'. This poses a great danger for our society", added the attorney of the child.
