Turkish prosecutors are seeking 10 life sentences and up to 30 additional years in prison for the father of a teenager who killed 10 people at a school in southern Turkey in April, the DHA news agency reported.
The boy’s mother faces up to 22-and-a-half years on a negligence charge.
Their 14-year-old son, İsa Aras Mersinli, entered the school with five handguns and seven magazines belonging to his father and opened fire in two classrooms on April 15. One teacher and nine students were killed and 15 students were injured. The attacker also died during the incident.
The Kahramanmaraş Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office completed its investigation into the April 15 attack at Ayser Çalık Middle School on July 20. The resulting indictment has been accepted by the Kahramanmaraş 3rd High Criminal Court, clearing the way for the parents’ trial.
Although he did not carry out the shooting, prosecutors accuse the father, police chief inspector Uğur Mersinli, of bearing criminal responsibility for the deaths and injuries on the basis of probable intent. He is also charged with violating Turkey’s firearms law.
Prosecutors allege that Mersinli recognized the risk posed by giving his son access to firearms but failed to prevent the attack.
The mother, teacher Peyman Pınar Mersinli, is charged with causing multiple deaths and injuries through conscious negligence. Both remain in custody.
According to the prosecutors, the father allowed his son access to firearms and took him to a police shooting range two days before the attack, while the mother failed to obtain psychiatric care for him despite recommendations from psychologists.
The father previously told investigators that he legally owned seven handguns and two hunting rifles and acknowledged that the weapons and ammunition used in the shooting belonged to him.
He said the guns were kept in locked cabinets in the family’s bedroom, with the ammunition stored separately and that he did not know how his son had gained access to them.
The father also said the teenager had developed a growing interest in firearms and repeatedly asked when he would be allowed to shoot.
On April 13, two days before the attack, he took his son to a police shooting range and allowed him to fire several rounds. The Kahramanmaraş Governor’s Office subsequently suspended an officer assigned to the range and launched an administrative investigation.
Prosecutors previously said psychologists at two institutions had recommended that the teenager receive treatment at a child psychiatry clinic. They allege that his mother did not act on those recommendations.
Digital evidence recovered from the teenager’s phone and computer indicated that he had planned the shooting, according to the indictment.
Investigators found hand-drawn maps of the school, photographs of his father’s guns and searches concerning previous school shootings, homemade explosives and violent materials.
A document dated April 11 contained a detailed attack plan that prosecutors said mostly matched how the shooting was carried out four days later.
The indictment also alleges that the teenager planned to attack members of his family and told several social media users that he intended to carry out a school shooting. Separate investigations into those users are continuing.
The attack, described as the deadliest school shooting in Turkey’s history, came one day after a former student opened fire at a vocational high school in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa, wounding 16 people before killing himself.
The back-to-back shootings sparked a national debate about school security, mental health services and access to firearms.
The attacks prompted Turkey to introduce a series of new school safety measures, including an artificial intelligence-based early warning system to identify at-risk students by analyzing absenteeism, disciplinary records and other indicators.
The government also pledged to tighten gun ownership rules, expand counseling and psychosocial support services and strengthen physical security at schools.