A man who pushed his pregnant wife off a cliff after persuading her to take out several loans, which he used to finance a life of luxury, is suing hundreds of people for damages after they made insulting comments about him on social media.
The Fethiye High Criminal Court sentenced Hakan Aysal, 41, to aggravated life imprisonment earlier this month after he was found guilty of ‘deliberately killing a pregnant spouse’, meaning he will only be eligible for parole after serving 30 years.
But local media say he is hoping to have the verdict overturned on appeal and is already planning for his release by trying to rake in a raft of cash with legal cases against his critics.
The criminal court determined that he had forced his wife Semra Aysal, who was seven months pregnant and afraid of heights, to go to a clifftop in Butterfly Valley in the district of Fethiye in the south-eastern Turkish province of Mugla, where he then pushed her to her death.
Before the 32-year-old woman’s fatal fall, he had taken out “personal accident insurance on her behalf with a guarantee of TRY 400,000 (GBP 21,500) and where the only beneficiary was himself”, according to the charge sheet.
Bank reports requested by the court also showed that he had taken out seven loans in his wife’s name and, after her death in June 2018, had set off on a jet-set life of luxury, travelling the country and staying at VIP locations.
Yet, despite being jailed, the guilty man’s quest for cash is still insatiable, according to Turkish media, which report that he is attempting to sue 200 people who allegedly insulted him online for the crime of ‘insult with an audio, written or video message’.
According to Turkish media, the convicted murderer, who has filed an appeal against his sentence, is after TRY 5,000 (GBP 269) for every person who has allegedly insulted him on social media.
One of his targets is 39-year-old Talha Y. from the southwest-central Turkish province of Konya, who wrote on his own Facebook page: “It is necessary to kill these people slowly, by torturing them every day. A life sentence is not enough for this bastard.”
After receiving notice of legal action against him, Talha Y. made a statement saying: “I did not make the comment in question to Hakan Aysal. Otherwise, I would have written on Hakan Aysal’s own account. I wrote it in response to the increasing number of femicides lately.”
Turkish media reported that after refusing to pay the amount in damages requested by the mediator, criminal proceedings were initiated against Talha Y., who will be tried in the coming days as a series of similar actions is planned.
It is unclear how many people have settled with the convicted killer rather than face the ordeal of a trial.
