Turkish prosecutor charges 47 people over deaths of newborns

By Huseyin Hayatsever

An Istanbul prosecutor has indicted 47 people, including doctors and nurses, over the inappropriate treatment of babies for profit, causing the death of at least 10 newborns in one of Turkey's biggest health scandals in recent years.

The Health Ministry has shut down nine private hospitals as a result of the investigation, with a total 19 health institutions deemed to bear responsibility, the indictment said.

The suspects are accused of creating a criminal group to put newborns in certain private hospitals and receive payments from Turkey's social security body for inappropriate and sometimes fake treatments, the indictment obtained by Reuters said.

The main opposition CHP party has sought a parliamentary inquiry into the affair and called for the resignation of Health Minister Kemal Memisoglu. He has said his ministry's inspections of hospitals will now be carried out "more strictly than ever".

Two of the suspects, working on an emergency phone line, had sought newborns that could be sent to these hospitals for intensive care treatment, according to the 1,399-page indictment, filed in an Istanbul court last week.

It said newborns then became the victims of malpractice or inadequate medical care, with medicine meant for them sold to others and some dying due to infections contracted in the units.

The goal of the criminal gang was "to obtain financial gain, rather than improving the health conditions of the patients," it added.

The suspects, including two doctors and 11 nurses, denied the charges, saying they had not intentionally sent the newborns to particular hospitals and that the babies had received the necessary treatment, the indictment said.

The charges the suspects face include forming a criminal group, fraud, forgery of official documents and murder by negligence. Some defendants could be sentenced to as many as 589 years in jail if found guilty.

Twenty-two suspects have been jailed pending trial.