Life Sentence for Husband Killing Wife Who Wanted Divorce

The Sultanahmet 4th High Criminal Court today (28 July) continued the case of the murder of trainee doctor Ayşe Yılbaş. Her husband, non-commissioned officer Hüseyin Güneş Özmen, has been handed a life sentence under severe conditions.

On 22 February 2008, Yılbaş was shot twelve times by her husband at the Cerrahpaşa Medical Faculty's neurology department where she was training.

The court case began on 7 May last year, but because of claims that the defendant was mentally unstable, a Forensic Medical Report was demanded. The report took about five months to be written.

"Killed for being a woman"

Women's groups had applied to become third-party plaintiffs in the case, but the judge rejected their applications, saying that they were not directly affected by the crime.

However, feminists argued, "Yılbaşı was killed because she was a woman. The murders of women are political murders." They attended the hearings as spectators and demanded the highest possible sentence. (EZÖ/AG)