Story By: Ana Marjanovic, Sub-Editor: Michael Leidig, Agency: Newsflash
The scheming husband who pushed his wife off a cliff so he could cash in her life insurance policy is trying to escape his 30-year jail sentence.
Evil Hakan Aysal, 41, lured his pregnant wife to a clifftop beauty spot for a selfie and then pushed her off.
Now the sick killer is appealing his sentence by claiming he was not mentally fit to stand trial.
Turkey’s Fethiye Heavy Penal Court gave Aysal an aggravated life sentence on 15th February for the murder of his wife, Semra Aysal, 33, who was seven months pregnant.
Under Turkish law, he would not be eligible for parole for 30 years.
But now in a sick bid to dodge justice, Aysal is claiming that he was unfit to stand trial.
He appealed to the Izmir Regional Court of Justice, asking that the 1st Supreme Council of the Forensic Medicine Institute of Istanbul review his criminal capacity.
Astonishingly, the court agreed and sent the case back to the Fethiye Heavy Penal Court for reconsideration.
Aysal will now appear before the judge again.
It was June 2018 when Aysal forced his heavily pregnant wife, who was afraid of heights, to go to a clifftop in Butterfly Valley, Fethiye.
Once at the beauty spot, he kept her waiting for three hours for it to empty of other tourists so that he could carry out the heinous act discreetly.
He then used the cash from seven loans and a personal accident insurance policy with a guarantee of TRY 400,000 (GBP 18,800) that he had taken out in Semra’s name prior to her death to fund a life of luxury before the law caught up with him.
Shortly after he was jailed for murder, he attempted to sue 200 people who he claimed had insulted him on social media for TRY 5,000 (GBP 236) per person. It is not clear if any of these lawsuits ended up in court.
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 digital memorial for women killed by violence” and is updated daily, 176 femicides have taken place in Turkey so far this year.
