Swedish diplomat summoned over child abuse remarks

ANKARA

Sweden's chargé d’affaires in Ankara was summoned to the foreign ministry on Monday over remarks made by a senior minister about child abuse in Turkey, diplomatic sources have said.

Hedvig Klara Erika Hogg Lohm was called to the Turkish ministry after Sweden’s foreign minister, Margot Wallstrom, tweeted on Sunday:

"Turkish decision to allow sex with children under 15 must be reversed. Children need more protection, not less, against violence, sex abuse." The controversial comments came after reports in Swedish media referred to an earlier Turkish Constitutional Court decision on child abuse cases.

Turkey says the tweet was based on “distorted information”.

"It is a scandal," Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said, stressing the efforts of the Turkish government to prevent and fight against child abuse.

Cavusoglu said parliament had recently approved a law which increased the punishment for such crimes.

The Turkish minister also voiced concern about the spread of anti-Turkey and anti-Islam rhetoric across Sweden.

Turkey’s justice minister, Bekir Bozdag, also confirmed on Twitter there was no legal gap over punishment of child abuse.

Bozdag wrote that the remarks of the Swedish minister – if not "malevolent" – were based on distorted information.

Referring to Article 103 of Law no: 5237 of Turkish Penal Code, Bozdag said:

"Any person who abuses a child sexually is sentenced to imprisonment from eight years to 15 years if the sexual attempt is against children who are under the age of 15 or against those [who have] attained the age of 15 but lack of ability to understand the legal consequences of such act." The second part of the article reads: "In case of performance of sexual abuse by inserting an organ or instrument into a body, the offender is sentenced to imprisonment of 16 years."