16-year-old gets 4.5 years in prison for kissing 13-year-old

A court in the southern province of Antalya has handed down a prison sentence of four years and six months to a 16-year-old boy for kissing 13-year-old girl at school.

"The expert report about the high schooler [with the initials] A.K. has emphasized that he had undertaken this action with the impulse of puberty and there was no need about punishment, but the prosecutor and judge did not take this into account. Following the trial process, A.K. has received a punishment on charges of sexual assault," the lawyer Sevcan Aydın Uzun told daily Hürriyet on Sept 28.

The case concerns the 16-year-old A.K. and 13-year-old S.Ö. who have hugged and kissed each other on the school premises of the latter. The incident however was taken to the judiciary when a schoolmate of the 13-year old S.Ö. (known with initials A.Ş) took the video of the two kissing and shared it with friends. Once the relevant video was seen by the school management, a lawsuit was opened at the Antalya 6th Heavy Penalty Court against the middle schooler A.Ş. for "using children in the production of inappropriate images" and the high schooler A.K. for "sexual assault."

Also, four children who were sent the relevant video stood trial on charges of "sharing inappropriate images in which children were used."