Girl locked in fast-food deep freeze

ISTANBUL, Turkey — Turkish prosecutors said Friday they were seeking attempted murder charges against two former McDonald's employees who they say locked a 10-year-old girl in a freezer for trying to sell tissues at a burger outlet.

"A small girl staying in a deep freeze for even half an hour could be a cause of death," the state-run Anatolian news agency quoted the Istanbul prosecutors as saying.

"We would like to convey our deep sorrow stemming from this incident, which took place on August 21, once more to the public," McDonald's Turkey General Manager Peter Rodwell told reporters in Istanbul.

A judiciary spokesman contacted by Reuters confirmed the contents of the writ and the charge that two staff at the McDonald's restaurant put Leyla Alkis in a cold storage cabinet, apparently to discourage her from selling packs of tissues to customers around the restaurant.

"That is the testimony of witnesses, that is what they saw," the official said.

The judiciary spokesman said the writ had been sent to prosecutors in the city who work on serious crime cases and were expected to use it as the basis for a formal charge sheet, probably next week.

The writ asked for between eight and 15 years in jail for the manager and an employee of the McDonald's restaurant in the Beylikduzu suburb of Istanbul.

Some poor families in Istanbul send their children onto the streets to earn money selling tissues and gum or by cleaning shoes.

The girl was freed when concerned customers confronted staff and made them release her. McDonalds' Rodwell refused to go into the details of the event, saying a legal process was under way.

"From our perspective the alleged incident that occurred is unacceptable from a humanitarian perspective as well as from that of McDonald's principles," he said.

"The people in question are no longer under our employment as they behaved clearly in a manner that is contradictory to McDonald's procedures and McDonald's policies."

Rodwell refused to comment on a possible damages claim by the Alkis family.

Under recent Istanbul city regulations, Leyla's father could also face charges for sending his daughter out to work on the streets. But prosecutors rarely pursue such cases.

McDonald's employs 4,120 people at outlets in many of Turkey's major cities.