Turkish court jails three for life over female student's murder

Ozgecan Aslan was bludgeoned and stabbed to death in February on a minibus

ISTANBUL:

A Turkish court on Thursday sentenced three men to life in prison over the murder and attempted rape of a 20-year-old female student that unleashed a wave of anger over violence against women.

Ozgecan Aslan was bludgeoned and stabbed to death in February after she was returning home from a shopping trip on a minibus, in a crime that sparked nationwide street protests.

The court sentenced minibus driver Ahmet Suphi Altindoken to "aggravated" life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for murdering and attempting to rape Aslan, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.

His two accomplices -- his father Necmettin Altindoken and a friend Fatih Gokce -- received the same terms, it added.

The aggravated life term is the highest punishment possible in Turkey after it abolished the death penalty in 2002, and means maximum jail terms with tougher conditions.

In this case, the three will serve at least 40 years in prison, said a lawyer for Aslan's family, Efkan Bolac.

"Public pressure has brought this decision. I hope this sentence will serve as a precedent for all similar court cases concerning violence against women," Bolac was quoted as saying by Dogan news agency.

'What they deserve'

According to the indictment, Ahmet Suphi Altindoken drove Aslan to a wood after all the other passengers had got off the minibus and then tried to rape her.

The young woman fought back using pepper spray but Altindoken then bludgeoned and stabbed her to death.

Altindoken's father and friend were found guilty of helping him burn and dispose of the body. The remains were found by police and the three were arrested.



"I knew they would receive the heaviest sentence, which is what they deserve. But I'm still sad because it will not bring my daughter back," said the victim's mother Songul Aslan.

Seeking to reduce their sentences, the defendants, who appeared via video screens from prison at Thursday's hearing, denied the rape accusations.

The Turkish authorities acknowledge there is a grave problem of violence against women -- often involving wives killed by their husbands -- but activists say nowhere near enough action has been taken.

According to the Platform to Stop Violence Against Women, 258 women have been murdered in Turkey so far this year and 286 in 2014.

Some public figures, including cabinet ministers, had suggested Aslan's murderers should face the death penalty. But the government insisted it would never been reinstated.

Demonstrators gathered outside the courthouse ahead of the hearing, calling for the heaviest sentence possible for the three.

"We will continue to revolt until this stops," they chanted, carrying pictures of Aslan.



"This is a symbolic trial for all women who have become victims of violence. Our struggle for equality and freedom will not end," said Meral Danis Bektas, a lawmaker from the main pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).

Activists are seeking what they call an "Ozgecan Aslan Law," which would prohibit judges from reducing a man's sentence for having been "provoked" into murder.

In hundreds of cases in the past, the killers were able to secure a reduced sentence arguing that a woman provoked them, or that their dignity was impugned.

Activists also say remarks by officials from the Islamic-rooted government about women and how they should be treated leave them exposed to violence.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan -- who enraged many Turkish women last year by declaring they were not equal to men -- said the guilty deserved "the most severe punishment" after Aslan's killing.