Turkey acquits two men in sister's 'honour killing'
The murderer, her youngest brother is serving nine-year prison time in Germany
(Web Desk) – Istanbul court has reportedly acquitted two brothers, 38 and 36, of assisting ‘honour killing’ of their sister in Germany in 2005, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.
Then 23-year-old, late Hatun Surucu was fatally shot in the head three times at a close range at a bus stop in German capital by her younger brother Ayhan over a decade ago.
The murderer admitted to the charges and was sentenced to nine years of prison time in a German jail. However, two of his elder brothers, Mutlu who now is 38 and Alparslan, now 36 have been acquitted in the latest of trials by a Turkish court over lack of evidence.
The two accused were earlier acquitted by a German court in 2006. The NY Times reported that Mutlu had earlier approvingly talked of her sister’s murder.
During the trial at the Istanbul court, murderer Ayhan’s ex-girlfriend, whose statement as a witness could have turned the tables in the case, did not appear on Tuesday.
Leyla Suren, a lawyer with Initiative Against Femicide, who did attend the hearing said that the woman could have stated before the court that the brothers cooperated in the murder.
Melek A, as the court’s documents refer to the crucial prosecution witness, was not found at her Germany address that was stated in the relevant documents. Suren further said that Initiative Against Femicide was denied the right to testify.
“In this courtroom, only the prosecutor was speaking for Hatun Surucu — so Hatun Surucu was once again alone,” The New York Times quoted the lawyer.
Although Ayhan’s ex-partner did testify in a German court that heard appeal against their acquittal in 2006, causing their acquittals overturned. However, the two managed to move to Turkey and continued to live there for years under no restriction whatsoever.
The Westernized victim
Hatun Surucu was murdered for the Western influence that she had embraced, calling it quits for the head scarf and denying living with the man she was illegally forced to marry with at the age of 16.
A German trial court judge had earlier described the crime: “An ice-cold, execution-style murder.”
She was living as a single parent with her son named Can. She had divorced her cousin-brother soon after which she gave birth to the child and left her parent’s residence to live separately.
According to the statistics reported by The New York Times, at least 1,000 Turkish women were murdered between 2003-2008 for ‘honour’ and in 2016, 328 women were killed for gender-related issues.
Another lawyer with the initiative against femicide, Ipek Bozkurt voiced disappointment in the lawmakers as women’s treatment never bettered over the years. According to her, popular President of Turkey, Erdogan reduced the role of any woman to being a mother and argued for men’s supremacy over the opposite gender.
He further said that a deputy prime minister had said a year earlier that women should not loudly laugh in public places.
