Abortion scandal clinic owner jailed

A WOMAN involved in an illegal abortion scandal that rocked the TRNC in 2016 has been released from prison following a Supreme Court ruling.

Anaesthetist Rasiha Serdaroğlu, 68, walked free on Thursday evening after judges halved her four-year sentence on appeal, meaning that she had already served her time.

Midwife Ayşegül İşbilen was also released, although judges left her original two-year sentence unchanged.

Ms İşbilen, who is not a TRNC citizen, now awaits the outcome of a subsequent appeal lodged yesterday against a decision to deport her to Turkey, due to her “strong ties” to North Cyprus, her lawyer Emre Kadri said.

Mrs Serdaroğlu and Ms İşbilen had been jailed for their part in terminating foetuses beyond the 10-week legal limit, at Girne’s Ada Test Tube Baby Women’s Health and Birth Centre, which were then buried in a field.

Judges also shortened a sentence given to gynaecologist Fahri Karagözlü from five years to two years and nine months. He will be eligible for parole at the end of this month.

The culprits had all received their initial sentences at Girne Assizes Court in March last year, just days after Meliz Akçal, who had admitted to having an abortion at the Ada clinic while more than four months pregnant, was sent to prison for nine months — later reduced to three in a separate appeal.

In another twist, the Supreme Court on Thursday also overturned the Girne Assizes Court decision to acquit clinic co-owner and IVF practitioner Verda Tunçbilek, 43, sentencing her to one year in prison.

She will only have to serve another 15 days, however, before becoming eligible for early release, having already spent more than nine months on remand.

Nurse Taner Okburan received a one-year sentence, minus time spent in custody, after his acquittal was also reversed.

Presiding judge Ahmet Kalkan said Verda Tunçbilek, had a relationship of “mutual benefit” with Dr Karagözlü. It was “impossible” that she could not have known about the procedure at her clinic, and she was “responsible for preventing the illegal abortion”.

Judge Kalkan said Okburan’s acquittal by the lower court had been “incorrect”, and as an experienced nurse his claims of simply “following orders” from Dr Karagözlü were “unacceptable”.

The not-guilty verdict of Verda Tunçbilek’s husband and fellow clinic owner, Mehmet Ali, 42, an ear nose and throat specialist, was upheld by the Supreme Court.