A Turkish police officer who raped his wife before leaving her for dead after shooting her in the head with his service firearm has been sentenced to 31 years in prison after she woke up from a coma.
The shocking incident in which the policeman had lied after the attempted murder by saying she had tried to commit suicide took place in the district of Kecioren, which is located in the Turkish province of Ankara, on 13th September 2020.
The defendant, who has been named as police officer Muslum Aktas, 27, initially tried to claim that his wife had seized his firearm in order to kill herself.
But after the victim, named as Sevginur Aktas, 22, an anaesthetist, woke up from her coma some two months later, his ruse was laid to bear and now, almost 18 months later, he has been jailed for attempted murder and sexual assault.
Speaking to the police after emerging from her coma, Sevginur explained that she had not tried to commit suicide, saying instead that her husband, who she had just married 18 days previously, had shot her in the head after an argument.
She had reportedly wanted to visit her relatives in Kirikkale, which is located in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey, but he refused to let her go.
She said that after she told him that she wanted a divorce, he raped her before dragging her to the bathroom where he told her that divorce was not an option. He then shot her in the head.
Aktas then called the emergency services and claimed that his wife had shot herself. But his plan failed after she survived and later woke up in hospital two months later.
She told the Ankara 35th High Criminal Court, after turning up in a wheelchair, that she met her husband on social media.
She said: “After the engagement, I wanted to break up, but he was telling me that only death would separate us. The psychological violence was extreme. Whenever I wanted to break up, he would threaten me.
“After arguing for some time on the incident day, he forcibly took me to the bedroom and raped me there. I felt so worthless and said I wanted a divorce and headed towards the door. He blocked me and took me back to the bedroom.
“He had a gun in his hand, and he choked me, I couldn’t breathe at the time. He shouted at me saying ‘Didn’t I tell you that divorce is not an option?’ I begged him to leave, then I heard the gunshot, I don’t remember anything, I opened my eyes in the hospital.”
She added: “He said I committed suicide, it’s a lie, I did not try and commit suicide, I love life.”
The accused meanwhile has rejected the allegations and maintains that it was a suicide attempt.
He said: “Yes, I was angry with my wife, so I sent a message to a friend and asked him to pick me up. When I went to change, an argument started between us again.
“She pointed the gun at herself. I panicked and shouted, ‘What are you doing? Drop the gun!’ When I realized that she wouldn’t be persuaded to let go of the gun, I tried to take it from her, and suddenly I heard a gunshot. I called the emergency teams two or three times.”
Femicide is a growing problem in Turkey, particularly after the country officially quit the Istanbul Convention in July last year. According to the 2021 Annual Data Report announced by the ‘We Will Stop Femicide Platform’, 280 women were killed by men in 2021, while 217 women were found suspiciously dead.
According to data from the ‘Monument Counter’, which is a monument established on the Internet to keep alive the memory of the women who died due to violence against women in the country and which is updated every day, 72 femicides have taken place since the beginning of 2022.
