Pumpkin-covered Path Leads to Wedding Ban

ban links to original article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 7 March 2012)

Neriman Sezer lives in the Portakallık neighborhood of Rize and has three
children and three grandchildren. In April of 2010 she went to court with
her relatives over a land border dispute. While the court case was proceeding
Neriman hanım allegedly caused damage to the crops on her relatives' land
and a case was opened against her  in Rize's 2nd Public Security Court for
the crime of 'causing damage and insulting.'

Neriman hanım was given a sentence of 6 months, 15 days in jail by the
court but in light of her good disposition and health concerns the decision
was made to have her serve the sentence within the scope of the
Supervised Freedom arrangement. So Neriman hanım, who loves to go to
weddings, was forbidden from attending weddings and engagement parties
for 6 months and 15 days.

Neriman hanım asserts that she did not damage her relatives' field but
only cleaned up the path to her house that was covered with pumpkins
by throwing them off to the side. She stated that 'I don't deserve the
sentence but I have to comply. There was a relative's wedding recently
and I couldn't go.'