Story By: Feza Uzay, Sub-Editor: Joe Golder, Agency:  Newsflash

A professional boxer who beat his petite girlfriend senseless before stabbing her to death with a knife has told a murder trial he should be released on grounds of diminished responsibility as he can not remember what happened.

The case which came to court for the first time this week was also the first time that Turkish national boxer Selim Ahmet Kemaloglu, 26, has been heard talking about the day he allegedly killed Zeynep Senpinar, 25, with a kitchen knife during the coronavirus lockdown.

The couple had apparently agreed to separate a month previously but because of the lockdown, they were still together when he allegedly beat her and then stabbed her to death.

Speaking to the court he said: “I don’t remember the moment of the event.”

This prompted the court to decide to suspend the case almost as soon as it started so that his mental health could be investigated once again.

The case, already delayed by the coronavirus pandemic, started after the indictment was finally filed by the Mugla Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office over the killing that happened on 24 May in Kotekli neighbourhood of Mentese District of Mugla.

According to the indictment accepted by the Mugla 1st High Criminal Court, he is charged with “aggravated murder of a person who could not defend herself physically or spiritually”.

The young woman’s mother, Aruz Senpinar, said she was horrified when she learned that the alleged killer had been violently attacking her daughter previously as well.

She said: “I learned that the defendant battered my daughter many times and threatened her.”

Asked if he accepted that he had stabbed her, he told the prosecutor: “I don’t remember whether I stabbed her or not. I already have psychological problems.”

However, this was rejected by the lawyer for the family, Haydar Ikizer, who said he did not understand why if a psychological profile had already shown that the accused had a good mental state, he was now being sent again for another test, this time to the Istanbul Forensic Medicine Institute?”

He said it was as if they were preparing the ground for a reduced sentence on reduced accountability charges which he said was now the standard defence in all similar cases across Turkey.

In the hearing, which lasted about 3 hours, the case was adjourned to 28th January 2021 in order to complete the psychological profile.

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