ANKARA: Turkish authorities have arrested a former top-tier soccer player who confessed to killing his 5-year-old son while the boy was being treated in a hospital on suspicion of a COVID-19 infection.
Cevher Toktas, 32, handed himself over to police and confessed to having smothered his son, Kasim, with a pillow on May 4, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
The boy's death was initially not believed to be suspicious, although he tested negative for COVID-19. His body has been exhumed for an autopsy as part of the investigation, Anadolu reported.
HaberTurk television reported that Toktas, who currently plays with amateur league team Bursa Yildirimspor, told police that he tried to suffocate his son because he did not love him, and turned himself in to police 11 days later because he felt remorse.
The boy was admitted to the children's hospital in the northwestern province of Bursa with a cough and high fever on April 23 — an official Turkish public holiday celebrating children — and placed in isolation along with his father.
Soon after, Toktas said, he smothered the boy and called for help, saying Kasim had taken a turn for the worse. The 5-year-old was rushed to the hospital’s intensive care unit, where he died two hours later.
No trial date has been set yet.
Between 2007 and 2009, Toktas played for the Hacettepe soccer team, who briefly competed in the Turkish top-tier Super League.
Turkish footballer confesses to killing son in hospital
https://arab.news/2kg8h
Turkish footballer confesses to killing son in hospital
- The boy's death was initially not believed to be suspicious
- No trial date has been set yet
5 bodies of migrants washed ashore in east of Libya’s capital Tripoli, police officer says
TRIPOLI: At least five bodies of migrants including two women have been washed ashore in َQasr Al-Akhyar, a coastal town in the east of Libya’s capital Tripoli, a police officer told Reuters on Saturday.
Hassan Al-Ghawil, head of investigations at the Qasr Al-Akhyar police station, said that according to people in the area, a child’s body washed ashore and because of the waves’ height the body returned to the sea, and the coast guard was asked to search for it.
Ghawil said the bodies are all dark-skinned people. The bodies were found on Emhamid Al-Sharif shore in the western part of the town by people who reported to the police station.
Libya has become a transit route for migrants fleeing conflict and poverty to Europe across the Mediterranean since the fall in 2011 of dictator Muammar Qaddafi to a NATO-backed uprising. Factional conflict has split the country into western and eastern factions since 2014.
Qasr Al-Akhyar is a coastal town some 73 kilometers (45 miles) east of Tripoli.
Pictures were posted on the Internet, and also seen by Reuters, showing the bodies of the migrants lying on the shore, where some were still within black inflatable lifebuoys.
“We reported to the Red Crescent to recover the bodies,” said Ghawil. “The bodies we found are still intact and we think there are more bodies to wash ashore.”
Earlier this month, fifty-three migrants, including two babies, were dead or missing after a rubber boat carrying 55 people capsized off the coast of Zuwara town in western Tripoli, the International Organization for Migration said.
Last week, a UN report said migrants in Libya, including young girls, are at risk of being killed, tortured, raped or put into domestic slavery, calling for a moratorium on the return of migrant boats to the country until human rights are ensured.
