Lawyers Can Figure, Step by Step

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 15 March 2019)


Nuran hanım DID NOT chase the ambulance that took her to
the hospital!

On 8 March, Ankara lawyer Nuran Özdemir was on her way to a
hearing in the Ankara Courthouse when she fell face down on the
steps leading to entrance "C".  Nuran hanım was taken to a hospital
and treated for  a wound to her chin, a swelled lip, injuries to her
left wrist and knee and some scratches on her face.  She was released
after the treatment.

Nuran hanım claimed that the steps were the problem since they are
not evenly spaced and that this constitutes a grave danger for the
hundreds of people who use the steps each day.   So she filed complaints
with the public prosecutor against those who built the steps, those who
contracted for them and those who inspected them for "causing injury by
neglect".   The prosecutor dutifully began an investigation - number
2019/46426 - and took the following statement from Nuran hanım:

"On the day of the incident, I asked my colleagues who saw me fall
to inform the guards in the security shack.  I also requested that any
video or MOBESE (street surveillance) images be examined, feeling
that upon their review I would be proven right."

Lawyers from the Lawyers Rights Center studied the steps and produced
a report:  "The staircase is comprised of seven steps, the bottom one
being 19.5 centimeters in height. The height of the top step is 14
centimeters.  The width of the first step is 28.5 centimeters, while the
top step's width is 26 centimeters.  So all the steps have different
heights and widths."

Nuran hanım asserted that "as can be seen in the report, the steps were
made haphazardly.  I'm not the steps' first victim and I won't be the last.
I stand by my complaint"


                      Ankara Adliyesi (Ankara Courthouse)