I am just watching the news on a German tv station...similiar to the BBC (8-12 million people watch them usually), about the 17 year old boy who has been in prision in Turkey for months now.

Here, it is a big story - for months this story fills the title pages of all major newspapers and millions of people feel with this guy who "innocently" sits in prison in Turkey.

The ONLY reason why this trails has been going on for months now is because a 13 (or meanwhile 14) year old school girl from the United Kingdom (Manchester) has not made a statement yet. Her parents do not want her daughter to make a statements. When you are 13 or 14, you should be old enough to know what is right and what is wrong....independent of your parents.

Being in prison in Turkey is not much fun...some people commit suicide because they can not bear it.

Somehow I can not imagine why this story is so big on all newspapers and tv stations here and in other countries, but in the UK itself, hardly anyone has ever covered this story.

I pray for this poor boy every night - whether he is 'guilty or innocent' no one should be languishing in jail so long without been tried and found guilty or innocent and released...but thats another story.
I agree - I do not understand at all *how* this can drag on because the girl's parents wont allow her to make a statement - that in itself is just wanton spitefulness.
I don't know too much about the law here, but I was under the impression that the police can demand a statement from a 'child' without the parents permission? Turkey must have its own laws about that anyway I am guessing.
If this guy is languishing in jail with the whole thing at a standstill because her parents wont allow her to make a statement -- How long before someone has to make a decision to get the process moving again, *without* this girl's statement, if necessary?
Seems to me her parents have everyone over a barrell, in some kind of stalemate?
Will that poor kid sit and rot in jail indefinitely?

Well, the only "statement" the court has is from a lawyer of the parents of Charlotte, Ömer Aycan (a Turkish lawyer) with the job to get the highest possible sentence for him. Being a Turkish lawyer, he knows who to delay trails artificially. This is why the trails has been postponed several times now. So Marco has been in jail for 7 months now!!!

From a legal point of view he has not committed a crime, as they did not have sex (she has turned out to be a virgin, so it is impossible) and there was also no case of rape. Both are underage, and it is illegal to jail someone who is not an adult...especially if he has not done anything wrong.

It is indeed a bizarre situation.
I was talking with my kids dad the other day about this - we both agreed that it is just luck that that is not our own son sat in that jail, heck wrong place, wrong time. It sounds like he was just being a young lad on holiday for goodness sake no one's even accused him of forcing his attentions on this girl against her wishes even.
The way I see it is this.
The girl's parents knew their daughter's age - and yet they stood back and allowed her to make friends with this lad out of their eyesight....?
If I had a 13 yrs old daughter and took her on holiday and she met a young man and they started batting their baby blues at each other.....I or her father would have a word in someone's shell-like, no?
Luckily we have the kind of relationship with our boys where we've been able to talk to them candidly about the dangers of jail bait.
How can these people sleep at night?

Havn't heard anything about it to be honest. Still, didn't pick a good country to get caugh if he is guilty. Seriously, a Turkish prison has got to be one of the top 5 worst places to be locked up in.

And even worse if you are not guilty which has already been proven.

There was a thread in 'Anything Else' on this a while back .... its crazy. You have to wonder what these parents are made of? Why are they taking this stance? They will scar that girl for life having to live with this afterwards as its very high profile now. Its been on the news in Italy for a while now and the public reaction is not very good, at least not in favour of the parents anyway.

It really would make you wonder to be honest.

Marco is free now!

The trial has been postponed to April and he was allowed to leave Turkey until April 2008.

In theory he could now also just never enter Turkey again and be "free" - but he wants to go back to the court in April just to prove he is not guilty.

Brilliant, thats great news. Delighted to hear it.

I saw a movie and it was based on a true story of an athlete that was wrongly convicted of a drugs charge in turkey and was sent to prison there. The movie chronicles his escape adn the terrible conditions that exist in these places. I will with almost certainty never visit turkey if i can help as this movie scared the crap out of me. We are talking sodomy and who knows what else

This all happened before i came here but i dont even remember seeing this at all in the media at the time. Was this even covered here in the uk?

I 'd have to agree there. Turkey are trying to get into the EU for that last few years and are really cleaning up their act. Have to say as well, any Turks i have meet have been really cool. Very mannerly people from what i have seen of them.

Fiction it was. The years i have spent living in Germany i got to make turkish friends. They were by and large friendly people and even invited me over to eat as well. Cant say i liked it much but i ate what i did like. I just don't want to get stuck in some god awful prison in any country really.

Like the film Return to Paradise, it aint pretty.