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Court accepts indictment seeking long sentences for suspects in newborn treatment scandal

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An indictment seeking lengthy prison sentences for 47 suspects accused of involvement in a shocking scandal of inappropriate treatment of newborns in Istanbul for profit was accepted by a high criminal court in the city, local media reported on Monday.

The scandal, which includes two doctors and 11 nurses, has resulted in the tragic death of at least 10 newborns, marking one of the largest healthcare crises the country has faced in recent years.

The first hearing in the trial, involving 47 defendants — 22 of whom are in pretrial detention — will be held at the Bakırköy 22nd High Criminal Court on November 18.

The 1,399-page indictment, drafted by the Bakırköy Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, lists 10 newborns as victims and accuses the suspects of creating a criminal group to put newborns in certain private hospitals and receive payments from Turkey’s Social Security Institution (SGK) for inappropriate and sometimes fake treatments.

Two of the suspects, working on an emergency phone line, had sought newborns that could be sent to these hospitals for intensive care treatment. The newborns then became the victims of malpractice or inadequate medical care, with medicine meant for them sold to others and some dying due to infections contracted in the units, according to Turkish media reports.

The goal of the criminal gang was “to obtain financial gain, rather than improving the health of the patients,” the indictment said. The charges the suspects face include forming a criminal group, fraud, forgery of official documents and murder by negligence.

Defendants Fırat Sarı and İlker Gönen, a doctor, could each face sentences of up to 582 years, while defendant Gıyasettin Mert Özdemir, an ambulance driver for the 112 Emergency Call Center, could be sentenced to 589 years in prison if found guilty, local media reports said.

A prison sentence ranging between 10 to 437 years is requested for “killing by negligence” in connection with the death of the newborns for 18 other suspects, including doctors, nurses and healthcare workers.

The licenses of 10 hospitals alleged to have been involved in the incidents have been revoked following the publication of the indictment details in the media, with a total of 19 health institutions deemed to bear responsibility.

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) sought a parliamentary inquiry into the affair and called for the resignation of Health Minister Kemal Memişoğlu, who stated following the revelation of the scandal that his ministry’s inspections of hospitals will now be carried out “more strictly than ever.”

The so-called “newborn gang” was initially identified due to an anonymous tip sent to the Presidential Communications Center (CİMER) on March 27,  2023.

The scandal has raised serious concerns about the privatization of Turkey’s healthcare system, a topic that has been a point of contention in recent years.

The Health Ministry’s latest statistics from 2022 show that private hospitals have a majority of neonatal intensive care unit beds in Turkey, 14 percent more newborn intensive care beds than public hospitals.

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