Story By: Feza Uzay, Sub-Editor: Marija Stojkoska, Agency: Newsflash
This pretty 29-year-old woman whose family did not approve of her lifestyle has been murdered by her mother, her elderly father and her brother, according to prosecutors, who are demanding all three be jailed for life.
The incident took place in the Buca district of Izmir Province in south-western Turkey on 17th May 2021, but the trial is just getting underway now.
The victim has been named as Zeynep Vural, 29, whose mother Ayse Vural, 59, surrendered to the police, saying that she had killed her daughter. The police found the victim lifeless in her bed.
An examination of the victim’s body determined that Zeynep Vural had been strangled to death.
After the prosecutor’s examination, the body was sent to Izmir Forensic Medicine Institute for autopsy. After the autopsy, it was released for burial.
The mother’s husband, who has been named as Saffet Vural, 70, was also detained, along with her son Omer Vural, 25.
The two were later released under judicial control, while the mother was held in custody pending trial.
The prosecutor, in its indictment, asked that the father and the son also be jailed.
Included in the indictment was a statement by Ayse Vural in which she tried to blame her daughter for the murder by claiming that she was a drug addict.
She said: “On the day of the incident, Zeynep called me over. She vomited in the room.
“She grabbed me by the hair while I was cleaning the floor. I was afraid that she would kill me, so I grabbed the scarf around her neck and pulled her towards the ground.
“She fell to the ground hard. I pressed a bag I found on the floor over her mouth and I held it like this for about five minutes. I couldn’t tell if she was dead or not.
“I kissed her palms a few times. Later, I called my son Omer and told him that Zeynep had fainted and that he should carry her to her bed. Omer took Zeynep to her room.
“After Omer left, I lied down next to Zeynep for a while. I went to her room from time to time during the night and prayed for her.
“In the morning, I told my husband and son about the incident. Then I went to the police and surrendered.”
The dad Saffet Vural and the son both made contradictory statements, with prosecutors concluding that it was not possible for the detained suspect Ayse Vural to have carried out the act alone, and therefore, that all three suspects would have acted unanimously in killing Zeynep.
Prosecutors said the family members did not approve of her lifestyle and decided to end her life by strangling her using a rope or a similar object.
The prosecutor demanded aggravated life imprisonment for the three defendants for the crime of ‘deliberately killing a first-degree relative’.
A life sentence in Turkey is 24 years in prison, whereas an aggravated life sentence is what was introduced to replace the death penalty.
Prisoners sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment can only be paroled after serving at least 30 years, or 36 years if given more than one sentence.
It is not yet clear when the hearing will take place.
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 an online monument dedicated to keeping alive the memory of the women who died due to violence against women in Turkey and is updated every day, 20 femicides have taken place since the beginning of 2022.
