The rapist/killer dad is identified as EROL DIKER. No mention of what happened to this little boy's mother.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/father-accused-of-raping-and-killing-his-son-in-turkish-cyprus-given-life-sentence.aspx?pageID=238&nID=52133&NewsCatID=351
Father accused of raping and killing his son in Turkish Cyprus given life sentence
NICOSIA - Radikal
A Turkish Cypriot court handed down a life sentence Aug. 6 to a father accused of raping and killing his 7-year-old son in the verdict hearing of a case that deeply shocked the northern part of the Mediterranean island.
Erol Diker was arrested last year after the body of his son Mustafa Diker was found in a village near the Beşparmak mountain range. The investigation showed evidence that Mustafa Diker had been raped by his father, who had personally reported him missing in the first place. Mustafa Diker's stepmother and uncle had already been sentenced to five years each for complicity in the murder.
The court found Erol Diker guilty of 12 charges including rape, child abuse, incest, torture and murder.
The chief justice said during the verdict that the trial had seriously affected Turkish Cypriot society. Tight security measures had been taken around the courthouse in Nicosia ahead of the verdict due to lynch attempts by mobs at previous hearings.
August/06/2013
Showing posts with label Turkey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Turkey. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Friday, February 22, 2013
Dad beats 7-month-old baby; infant now in intensive care (Turkey)
Dad is only identified as OSMAN G.
http://www.todayszaman.com/news-307877-violent-father-lands-7-month-old-baby-in-hospital.html
Violent father lands 7-month-old baby in hospital
22 February 2013 /TODAY'S ZAMAN, İSTANBUL
A 7-month-old baby was taken to a hospital after she was beaten by her father during a fight with his wife in the Central Anatolian province of Yozgat on Thursday.
According to news reports, Osman G. and Münevver G., who got married two years ago, started quarreling for an unknown reason. During their fight Osman G. lost his temper and started to beat the baby, which was in his arms, and the baby fainted as a result of the severe slaps. The man also threw the baby to the ground.
After their fight the couple took the baby to the hospital. The baby was placed in an intensive care unit. Münevver G. filed a criminal complaint against her husband at a police station but Osman G. was released shortly thereafter. Münevver G. told reporters that she often suffered from domestic violence at the hands of her husband. “In the second month of our marriage my husband broke my nose. I can't understand why the police released him. I call on the family and social policy minister to help us,” said Münevver G.
Gender-based violence, which is among the serious problems many women face in Turkey, has doubled in four years, according to a parliamentary report released in March. The report, prepared by a sub-commission of the parliamentary Human Rights Commission, revealed that, according to gendarmerie and police statistics, Turkey witnessed 48,264 gender-based incidents of violence in 2008, 62,587 incidents in 2009, a total of 72,257 incidents in 2010 and 80,398 incidents in 2011. Therefore, between 2008 and 2011, Turkey saw a total of 263,506 cases of domestic abuse and violence against women.
http://www.todayszaman.com/news-307877-violent-father-lands-7-month-old-baby-in-hospital.html
Violent father lands 7-month-old baby in hospital
22 February 2013 /TODAY'S ZAMAN, İSTANBUL
A 7-month-old baby was taken to a hospital after she was beaten by her father during a fight with his wife in the Central Anatolian province of Yozgat on Thursday.
According to news reports, Osman G. and Münevver G., who got married two years ago, started quarreling for an unknown reason. During their fight Osman G. lost his temper and started to beat the baby, which was in his arms, and the baby fainted as a result of the severe slaps. The man also threw the baby to the ground.
After their fight the couple took the baby to the hospital. The baby was placed in an intensive care unit. Münevver G. filed a criminal complaint against her husband at a police station but Osman G. was released shortly thereafter. Münevver G. told reporters that she often suffered from domestic violence at the hands of her husband. “In the second month of our marriage my husband broke my nose. I can't understand why the police released him. I call on the family and social policy minister to help us,” said Münevver G.
Gender-based violence, which is among the serious problems many women face in Turkey, has doubled in four years, according to a parliamentary report released in March. The report, prepared by a sub-commission of the parliamentary Human Rights Commission, revealed that, according to gendarmerie and police statistics, Turkey witnessed 48,264 gender-based incidents of violence in 2008, 62,587 incidents in 2009, a total of 72,257 incidents in 2010 and 80,398 incidents in 2011. Therefore, between 2008 and 2011, Turkey saw a total of 263,506 cases of domestic abuse and violence against women.
Monday, September 24, 2012
Dad sells 13-year-old daughter, who was raped and tortured, to her rapist (Turkey)
UNNAMED DAD
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/father-sells-off-rape-victim-following-village-meeting.aspx?pageID=238&nID=30841&NewsCatID=341
Father sells off rape victim following village meeting
ERZURUM
A father has agreed to avoid pursuing revenge against the alleged rapist of his 13-year-old daughter in exchange for livestock, the marriage of the victim and her assailant, as well as a bride from the offender’s family, daily Sabah reported today.
The victim, who was raped and tortured by a 15-year-old relative, was given away as a bride to her rapist during a meeting last month in a village in the eastern province of Erzurum’s Çat district that locals convened to prevent a blood feud from erupting between the two families.
The father, in return, received land and livestock, while the rapist's 13-year-old sister is now set to marry the victim's teenage brother because the victim's father wanted "a new daughter" now that his own "had been dishonored."
The event was revealed when an unknown person alerted gendarmerie forces. The rapist confessed to the crime and was sent to prison.
The victim was hospitalized following the incident but was soon returned to her family.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/father-sells-off-rape-victim-following-village-meeting.aspx?pageID=238&nID=30841&NewsCatID=341
Father sells off rape victim following village meeting
ERZURUM
A father has agreed to avoid pursuing revenge against the alleged rapist of his 13-year-old daughter in exchange for livestock, the marriage of the victim and her assailant, as well as a bride from the offender’s family, daily Sabah reported today.
The victim, who was raped and tortured by a 15-year-old relative, was given away as a bride to her rapist during a meeting last month in a village in the eastern province of Erzurum’s Çat district that locals convened to prevent a blood feud from erupting between the two families.
The father, in return, received land and livestock, while the rapist's 13-year-old sister is now set to marry the victim's teenage brother because the victim's father wanted "a new daughter" now that his own "had been dishonored."
The event was revealed when an unknown person alerted gendarmerie forces. The rapist confessed to the crime and was sent to prison.
The victim was hospitalized following the incident but was soon returned to her family.
Monday, August 13, 2012
Dad who raped daughter with Down syndrome gets reduced sentence (Istanbul, Turkey)
UNNAMED DAD. Absolutely sickening. Because the victim's hymen was still "intact", the court decided she was still a "virgin" even though she got pregnant after her father raped her.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/man-who-raped-daughter-with-down-syndrome-gets-reduced-sentence.aspx?pageID=238&nID=27586&NewsCatID=339
Man who raped daughter with Down syndrome gets reduced sentence
ISTANBUL
Lawyers and nongovernmental organizations have reacted angrily after the Supreme Court of Appeals reduced a sexual abuse sentence against a father convicted of raping his own daughter on the grounds that the girl had remained a virgin even though she had aborted the fetus.
"This decision has ruined every attempt we have made to prevent the legitimization of these kinds of incidents," Liz Amado, head of the Women's Human Rights Association, told daily Akşam.
The incident was revealed after the then-14-year-old victim, who suffers from Down syndrome, went to the hospital to undergo abortion four years ago.
Blood tests revealed that it was 99.99 percent likely that the father of who her unborn child was her own father.
The victim was immediately transferred to relevant authorities, where she confirmed that her father had had intercourse with her.
A local court sentenced the father to 15 years in prison for sexual abuse.
The high court, however, recently overruled the decision, claiming that the "the victim's hymen is not suitable for intercourse and that she is still a virgin."
The high court stated that "only sexual abuse through penetration” necessitated a heavier sentence, whereas "basic sexual abuse" did not.
Public, mother reacts to the decision
The mother quickly divorced the father once news of the rape became public, but the victim reportedly failed to understand what had happened due to her mental challenges.
The victim's attorney, Hünkar Demir Çelik, said the decision was "unacceptable."
"I will request that the local court insist on its prior decision," Çelik said. "It is a known fact that only birth will undoubtedly break the flexible hymen."
Çelik further stated that if high court gets its way, the father will only serve five years in prison.
Amado said the case was not unique in its ruling and that similar misjudgments had been given before.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Mom brings home daughter abducted by violent dad (Limassol, Cyprus)
Sounds like an amazing book. Unfortunately, this kind of story is not as rare as we would hope....
For all the whining that the fathers rights do about Japan (which actually attempts to protect mothers), most of the world is more like the Middle East in its protection of violent criminal fathers and their ownership "rights" over women and children.
Dad is identified only as MOSTAFA.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2156850/Louise-Monaghan-book-A-mothers-journey-Syria-rescue-daughter-abducted-violent-husband.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
'They said I'd be stoned to death... but I still walked into a war zone to snatch back my little girl': One mother's journey to Syria to bring home the daughter abducted by her violent ex-husband
By Louise Monaghan
PUBLISHED: 16:24 EST, 9 June 2012 | UPDATED: 16:24 EST, 9 June 2012
Wednesday, September 7, 2011 is a day I will never forget. That day shattered the idyllic life I had been living for nearly six years in the resort of Limassol in Cyprus.
It started out like any other: there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. My six-year-old daughter, May, was excited because she was due to start ‘big school’ the following day.
Her white polo shirt, navy skirt and new shoes were placed on her bed. The previous night, her father had called to say he would take her to the beach in the morning. Mostafa, whom I had divorced a year earlier, had been given access to our daughter for a few hours each week.
When he arrived, he was quieter than usual, following me around the rooms as I sorted May’s clothes for the beach. He was watching my every move, and it worried me. Later, as I sat at work still feeling uneasy, I dialled his number. His phone was off – something wasn’t right. I drove to the beach where he’d said they would be. They weren’t there. Then and there I knew. He had taken May away from me.
In a blind panic, I rang my sister Mandy in Dublin. ‘He’s taken her, she’s gone,’ I said. I kept ringing Mostafa’s mobile. Nothing.
At first the local police were of little help. I had been to the station many times before, reporting Mostafa over assaults, so I knew only too well what reception I would face: they told me to calm down.
Again, I tried Mostafa’s phone. I was shocked when it rang but sickened when I realised it was an international dialling tone. He answered and I felt my stomach churn. ‘Oh my God, Mostafa, I’ve been ringing you all day. Where are you?’
He replied calmly: ‘I am in Syria. I am taking May to Syria.’ I asked him if I could speak to her. I didn’t want to upset her, so I stayed calm. She said she was fine, but she sounded distressed. I asked her if she had been on an aeroplane and she replied: ‘Yes, Mama, I have.’
I cracked. My body collapsed from beneath me. The next thing I remember is waking up in hospital, panicking. I knew I had to leave urgently, so I signed myself out without treatment, feeling awful. I had been sick for a long time, and it had been recently confirmed that I had osteoarthritis. I needed both my hips replaced urgently and the doctors had found two large cysts on my hips that they suspected might be cancerous.
Mostafa didn’t seem concerned as I relayed my fears to him on the phone.
He said simply: ‘I am sorry, but you left me no choice. She was to start school tomorrow and you knew that I didn’t want her to go there.’
The reason for abducting May became clear. She was due to start school, and it wasn’t a Muslim one. The hypocrisy. Mostafa seldom went to mosque, yet here he was pretending to be devout. This was why he was turning mine and May’s world upside down.
People ask me all the time: ‘What did you see in him?’ Well, it wasn’t just what I saw in Mostafa; it’s what every woman who met him saw in him. In a good mood, he was absolutely charming. With a strong jaw line, rugged features, big brown eyes and beautiful black hair, he was a good-looking guy with a commanding presence. I suppose his charm was, despite the bad times, what kept me going back to him.
There was nothing charming about him now. If I ever wanted to see my little girl again, he said, I was to sell everything I owned. He ordered me to clear my bank account and bring him whatever money I had, so that we could live in a slum in Syria.
Somehow, I managed to keep him calm. I didn’t want him to worry that I might have reported him to the authorities. I told him I wanted to get there as soon as possible to be with May. He knew only too well that my life revolved around her, yet he still underestimated me. He hadn’t realised I would risk my life to get her back.
One of my aunts had contacts in Turkey, which borders Syria. She said a group of Turks might be able to snatch May from Mostafa’s house and bring her back across the border.
I knew they would be illegal people-smugglers, but I was ready to give every last cent I had. I had foolishly put my trust in the Cypriot authorities – which had been warned about the threat of abduction – and they had let me down.
I dialled the Turkish number. A man answered and when I told him what had happened, he said: ‘I will get some men over there and we will snatch her back for you.’
But I wanted a Plan B, too. I decided to head for Turkey – at least I would be nearer Syria. Mandy agreed to join me, so together we flew from Ercan airport in the occupied north of Cyprus to Adana, about 160 miles away from the Syrian border.
The next morning we took a taxi to the town of Hamam in Hatay province. I was less than 40 miles away from the border between civilisation and war. It felt like the dividing line between life and death. Without my little girl I might as well have been dead.
I contacted our Turkish ‘friend’ to tell him I was only a few miles from the Syrian border and that I would wait there until he returned with May. But he started to make excuses, saying the escape plan was proving difficult.
Mandy and I were worried. We decided I should ring Mostafa and tell him where I was. He sounded frantic and asked where I was. When I told him, he said: ‘You are only half-an-hour away from me.’
After warning me not to do ‘anything funny’ or he would flee with May, he finally agreed to a plan: I was to join him and our daughter. I wanted to scream but I had to stay calm. I had to play the game.
As I put the phone down, I looked at my sister and knew she was thinking the same thing: we might never see each other again. I was walking into a war zone, to an ex-husband who had beaten me many times over many years. But if I didn’t go, what then? May would be married off, probably to a cousin, at 14 and she would always think her Mama had abandoned her.
So I set off in a taxi. As we neared the border, I could see a refugee camp with hundreds of white tents filled with Syrians who had been caught trying to sneak into Turkey. It was heartbreaking to look at the children in their bare feet on the dirty, sandy gravel.
Up ahead I could see lorries and cars queuing at the checkpoint. My driver told me he could take me no further. He charged me €100 for a journey that took just 30 minutes.
At the border, I handed my passport to a guard. In English, he asked me where I was going. When I said Syria, he replied: ‘No, you’re not. Do you know what is happening there?’ I said yes, but that I had to go.
He said: ‘I can’t let you in, I’m sorry.’ I took out my purse and offered him money, yet he refused to budge. I then told him my ex-husband had taken my baby and that I needed to save her. With that, he took me to an outbuilding where three men were checking documents. As they all stared at me and my Irish passport, one man made a call. When he put the phone down, he handed the passport back to the man I now call my ‘angel’. It was stamped.
'He wanted me to sell everything I owned and live in a slum in Syria..'I climbed into Mostafa’s car – a maroon Kia – and asked him how May was. From the back seat he plucked a black hijab and a long black dress, threw them at me and said: ‘Put this on. This is what you will be wearing now.’
We drove through filthy streets until we eventually arrived in Idlib, near Aleppo in north-west Syria, Mostafa’s home city. I was hit with the strong smell of sewage. Rubbish and old clothing were strewn everywhere. It was the dirtiest place I had seen in my life. Men drove along in the dark on donkeys, whipping them as they struggled. I told Mostafa that I had seen what Idlib was like on the news because of the violence. He blamed it on media hype.
He pulled in opposite what looked like a fruit-and-vegetable shop and told me to wait. I pulled the scarf over my face to block the stench. Within minutes, there was a deafening noise and in the rear-view mirror I saw what looked like a 1,000 protesters, mostly men, waving flags and carrying a makeshift coffin.
I locked the doors. Women were grabbing their children and running. The car began to rock violently – for a brief moment, I thought it was going to be turned over, but after a few minutes, the crowd disappeared around the corner chanting: ‘Death to the president, death to the president.’
We then drove through army checkpoints and arrived at Mostafa’s village, Nairab.
One of the first things to strike me were the green lights on the top of three buildings – mosques. This was clearly a very Muslim area and home, perhaps, to extreme fundamentalists. The village looked like a compound, the tall walls covered in graffiti, but it was only afterwards that I learned how dangerous it was. The Syrian army shot people on the streets most days for protesting.
Mostafa’s house did, at least, look habitable. He had been sending money home when he was working in construction in Cyprus. He ushered me in – obviously no one was meant to see me.
I was elated to be reunited with my little girl. Yet as the door opened and she walked through, it took me a moment to recognise her. May’s long brown hair was tightly plaited and she was wearing a cheap pair of black trousers and red Arabic clogs. Her black and white top had cheap lace around the neck and sleeves. It was typical Arab village clothing.
She clearly didn’t know what to say. She looked nervously at her father before saying: ‘Mama, look. I told you I would mind my Nintendo for you. I kept it safe.’
I felt like bursting into tears. She treasured her game console and it had obviously been her lifesaver in this hellhole. She sat on my lap and Mostafa left the room. As soon as he was gone, we started to kiss and hug. May looked around and she whispered: ‘Mama, I’m really worried. I was meant to start school.’
I replied: ‘Don’t worry, love. I rang the school and I told them that you were on holiday.’
May relaxed. She told me how her father had told her they were going to a new shopping centre to buy a Barbie. She believed him. In fact, it was an airport, not a mall. He bought her a doll in the duty-free shop, but when she went outside she saw the aircraft and began to cry.
She told him that she didn’t want to go on a plane, that her Mama had said she was never to get on a plane without her. But he beat her repeatedly until she got on the flight, sobbing.
I didn’t know what to say except to tell her over and again how much I loved her and that nothing like that would ever happen to her again.
That night, we cuddled up and May fell asleep in my arms. I remember lying there, terrified to hear gunshots outside the window. It was a different, frightening world.
We had a chance to escape. I grabbed May and yelled 'Hang on and be brave'
I learned very quickly to be nice to my ex-husband. I had no rights. At any stage he could have beaten me to death and claimed I had been unfaithful. Thankfully, Mandy managed to keep the story from the British press and foreign TV stations, knowing Mostafa was volatile.
We lived on yogurt and rice, and when Mostafa’s cupboards were empty, his mother sent food. I wasn’t allowed to leave the house.
Every day I would struggle to look through the windows to the outside world, but there were bars and wire mesh on every window.
The lavatory – a hole in the ground – was horrible. Instead of toilet roll, there was a hosepipe coming out of the wall. The smell was horrendous, and the lavatory was right next to the kitchen.
When I turned on the kitchen tap, filthy brown water poured out. There was no way I would drink that, even if it was boiled.
I remember bursting into tears. I told Mostafa that I had spent all day listening to bombs exploding and gunfire and I was terrified. A huge row erupted, and I flung a chair across the room in fury and frustration. For the first time since I had met him, he just stood there and accepted it.
‘What’s done is done,’ he said. ‘I can’t change it. May will never leave Syria – never, ever – so get that into your head.’
I prayed the people-smugglers would come.
There was no fresh air in the house because he was so determined to keep me a prisoner. When I objected, he screamed at me, saying I wasn’t in Cyprus now, and he dragged me into the bathroom and punched me repeatedly.
I fell but he continued to beat me, hitting the back of my head and punching me in the side. May was watching from her bedroom and screaming: ‘I want my Mama, I want my Mama.’ Mostafa simply shoved me and said: ‘Die, you bitch.’
The next day, I rang Mandy and the first thing I said to her was: ‘Happy birthday, Sis.’ Her birthday was still important to me and May, I told her. I explained that I was hoping Mostafa would extend my visa for another 15 days – I had told him that if he let me stay longer, I would ensure that he was financially comfortable until I returned.
Mandy’s voice became very serious. She said: ‘Louise, no one’s coming for you. The Turkish guys have gone AWOL and it looks like the government has no powers to do anything. It’s just too dangerous. I hate to say this, but you are on your own.’
At this stage I was unaware that Mandy had paid the Turks €5,000 to get us out and they had absconded.
I heard Mostafa’s car pulling up. ‘Right,’ he said. ‘We are going into Idlib for your visa.’
We found a parking space some 300 yards away from the immigration office, he gathered the paperwork and got out of the car. I couldn’t believe Mostafa was leaving us on our own. As he walked away, he suddenly turned back and said: ‘I will leave the keys in the ignition and the car running as it is so hot. It will keep the air-conditioning on.’
Once he was out of sight, I pulled out my phone and sent a text to Mandy, saying: ‘I have a chance to run. No passport.’
A text came back immediately: ‘F*** it. Run.’
I turned to May and said: ‘May. We are going. Please hang on and be brave.’
We ran towards a taxi rank where three or four yellow cabs were waiting. I chose one driven by a man in his 50s with a kind face. I rang a contact in Cyprus and asked her to get someone who spoke Arabic. I told her our lives were at risk.
Within a minute someone called back. His name was Tariq. After a conversation with the cab driver on my phone, Tariq said: ‘You are in luck, Louise. This man will take you all the way to Damascus. But it is a five-and-a-half-hour drive and it is very dangerous.’
I didn’t know what exactly we would do once we reached the Syrian capital, but I was hoping he would take us straight to the Irish consulate.
We drove on dirt roads through areas I had never heard of – and some I had, including Hama and Homs, where people were being killed every day. I made sure that my hijab covered every hair on my head and that I made no eye contact.
After a few hours, we started to see signs for Damascus. One of them said it was 108km (67 miles) away. It might as well have said a million. May and I spoke to each other in whispers and said the Hail Mary together.
We came to yet another checkpoint. There were many soldiers, this time heavily armed. Some were clearly special forces, dressed in shirts and jeans. They were checking every single vehicle and making each car approach very slowly in single file. As we got closer, I could see a soldier staring in at me and May in the back of the car but he casually waved us on.
I saw the driver look in his rear-view mirror and smile. I knew this poor man could have lost everything, perhaps even his life, if he had been caught.
But just a few yards past the checkpoint, with mountains all around us, the car started to choke, smoke coming from the engine. I couldn’t believe it. I kept saying to the driver: ‘Yalla, yalla, yalla [move, move, move].’A soldier started to follow. But miraculously, we rolled away from him around a corner. And then the car just stopped. Dead.
There was a look of horror on the poor taxi driver’s face. In Arabic he just said: ‘Khalas [finished],’ and threw his hands up into the air. We were doomed.
The driver made some calls and a short while afterwards another taxi pulled in. Its driver attached a rope to our vehicle and started to tow us through this mountain range, a weird area covered in sand, with nothing else around – no birds, no animals of any sort, no noise – until, miles later, we could exchange cars.
Finally we arrived at a huge street with garages everywhere and shops selling spare parts. Damascus. We were safe. Our taxi driver opened our door and in Arabic said: ‘May God bless you and your beautiful daughter.’
I wanted to cry. I owe that man our lives.
The days went by in the safe house organised by Tariq. The Irish embassy was trying to locate the travel documents we needed to get us out of Syria, but without success. Then Mandy rang. She said: ‘Louise, I don’t know how to tell you this. This is the hardest phone call I have ever had to make.’ My heart missed a beat.
‘The Syrian government says you are wanted for kidnapping May,’ she continued. I felt weak. She went on to say that this was an extremely serious charge – if I was caught I would be imprisoned for life or stoned to death under sharia law. I didn’t know what to say. I had no words.
‘You are in severe danger,’ said Mandy. ‘Do not leave the apartment. This is very serious, Louise. Your lives are at risk.’
NEXT WEEK: Our terrifying journey across the mountains
Stolen: Escape From Syria, by Louise Monaghan, is published by Mainstream on Thursday, priced £12.99. To order your copy at the special price of £10.99 inc p&p call the Review Bookstore on 0843 382 1111 or visit mailshop.co.uk/books
For all the whining that the fathers rights do about Japan (which actually attempts to protect mothers), most of the world is more like the Middle East in its protection of violent criminal fathers and their ownership "rights" over women and children.
Dad is identified only as MOSTAFA.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2156850/Louise-Monaghan-book-A-mothers-journey-Syria-rescue-daughter-abducted-violent-husband.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
'They said I'd be stoned to death... but I still walked into a war zone to snatch back my little girl': One mother's journey to Syria to bring home the daughter abducted by her violent ex-husband
By Louise Monaghan
PUBLISHED: 16:24 EST, 9 June 2012 | UPDATED: 16:24 EST, 9 June 2012
Wednesday, September 7, 2011 is a day I will never forget. That day shattered the idyllic life I had been living for nearly six years in the resort of Limassol in Cyprus.
It started out like any other: there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. My six-year-old daughter, May, was excited because she was due to start ‘big school’ the following day.
Her white polo shirt, navy skirt and new shoes were placed on her bed. The previous night, her father had called to say he would take her to the beach in the morning. Mostafa, whom I had divorced a year earlier, had been given access to our daughter for a few hours each week.
When he arrived, he was quieter than usual, following me around the rooms as I sorted May’s clothes for the beach. He was watching my every move, and it worried me. Later, as I sat at work still feeling uneasy, I dialled his number. His phone was off – something wasn’t right. I drove to the beach where he’d said they would be. They weren’t there. Then and there I knew. He had taken May away from me.
In a blind panic, I rang my sister Mandy in Dublin. ‘He’s taken her, she’s gone,’ I said. I kept ringing Mostafa’s mobile. Nothing.
At first the local police were of little help. I had been to the station many times before, reporting Mostafa over assaults, so I knew only too well what reception I would face: they told me to calm down.
Again, I tried Mostafa’s phone. I was shocked when it rang but sickened when I realised it was an international dialling tone. He answered and I felt my stomach churn. ‘Oh my God, Mostafa, I’ve been ringing you all day. Where are you?’
He replied calmly: ‘I am in Syria. I am taking May to Syria.’ I asked him if I could speak to her. I didn’t want to upset her, so I stayed calm. She said she was fine, but she sounded distressed. I asked her if she had been on an aeroplane and she replied: ‘Yes, Mama, I have.’
I cracked. My body collapsed from beneath me. The next thing I remember is waking up in hospital, panicking. I knew I had to leave urgently, so I signed myself out without treatment, feeling awful. I had been sick for a long time, and it had been recently confirmed that I had osteoarthritis. I needed both my hips replaced urgently and the doctors had found two large cysts on my hips that they suspected might be cancerous.
Mostafa didn’t seem concerned as I relayed my fears to him on the phone.
He said simply: ‘I am sorry, but you left me no choice. She was to start school tomorrow and you knew that I didn’t want her to go there.’
The reason for abducting May became clear. She was due to start school, and it wasn’t a Muslim one. The hypocrisy. Mostafa seldom went to mosque, yet here he was pretending to be devout. This was why he was turning mine and May’s world upside down.
People ask me all the time: ‘What did you see in him?’ Well, it wasn’t just what I saw in Mostafa; it’s what every woman who met him saw in him. In a good mood, he was absolutely charming. With a strong jaw line, rugged features, big brown eyes and beautiful black hair, he was a good-looking guy with a commanding presence. I suppose his charm was, despite the bad times, what kept me going back to him.
There was nothing charming about him now. If I ever wanted to see my little girl again, he said, I was to sell everything I owned. He ordered me to clear my bank account and bring him whatever money I had, so that we could live in a slum in Syria.
Somehow, I managed to keep him calm. I didn’t want him to worry that I might have reported him to the authorities. I told him I wanted to get there as soon as possible to be with May. He knew only too well that my life revolved around her, yet he still underestimated me. He hadn’t realised I would risk my life to get her back.
One of my aunts had contacts in Turkey, which borders Syria. She said a group of Turks might be able to snatch May from Mostafa’s house and bring her back across the border.
I knew they would be illegal people-smugglers, but I was ready to give every last cent I had. I had foolishly put my trust in the Cypriot authorities – which had been warned about the threat of abduction – and they had let me down.
I dialled the Turkish number. A man answered and when I told him what had happened, he said: ‘I will get some men over there and we will snatch her back for you.’
But I wanted a Plan B, too. I decided to head for Turkey – at least I would be nearer Syria. Mandy agreed to join me, so together we flew from Ercan airport in the occupied north of Cyprus to Adana, about 160 miles away from the Syrian border.
The next morning we took a taxi to the town of Hamam in Hatay province. I was less than 40 miles away from the border between civilisation and war. It felt like the dividing line between life and death. Without my little girl I might as well have been dead.
I contacted our Turkish ‘friend’ to tell him I was only a few miles from the Syrian border and that I would wait there until he returned with May. But he started to make excuses, saying the escape plan was proving difficult.
Mandy and I were worried. We decided I should ring Mostafa and tell him where I was. He sounded frantic and asked where I was. When I told him, he said: ‘You are only half-an-hour away from me.’
After warning me not to do ‘anything funny’ or he would flee with May, he finally agreed to a plan: I was to join him and our daughter. I wanted to scream but I had to stay calm. I had to play the game.
As I put the phone down, I looked at my sister and knew she was thinking the same thing: we might never see each other again. I was walking into a war zone, to an ex-husband who had beaten me many times over many years. But if I didn’t go, what then? May would be married off, probably to a cousin, at 14 and she would always think her Mama had abandoned her.
So I set off in a taxi. As we neared the border, I could see a refugee camp with hundreds of white tents filled with Syrians who had been caught trying to sneak into Turkey. It was heartbreaking to look at the children in their bare feet on the dirty, sandy gravel.
Up ahead I could see lorries and cars queuing at the checkpoint. My driver told me he could take me no further. He charged me €100 for a journey that took just 30 minutes.
At the border, I handed my passport to a guard. In English, he asked me where I was going. When I said Syria, he replied: ‘No, you’re not. Do you know what is happening there?’ I said yes, but that I had to go.
He said: ‘I can’t let you in, I’m sorry.’ I took out my purse and offered him money, yet he refused to budge. I then told him my ex-husband had taken my baby and that I needed to save her. With that, he took me to an outbuilding where three men were checking documents. As they all stared at me and my Irish passport, one man made a call. When he put the phone down, he handed the passport back to the man I now call my ‘angel’. It was stamped.
'He wanted me to sell everything I owned and live in a slum in Syria..'I climbed into Mostafa’s car – a maroon Kia – and asked him how May was. From the back seat he plucked a black hijab and a long black dress, threw them at me and said: ‘Put this on. This is what you will be wearing now.’
We drove through filthy streets until we eventually arrived in Idlib, near Aleppo in north-west Syria, Mostafa’s home city. I was hit with the strong smell of sewage. Rubbish and old clothing were strewn everywhere. It was the dirtiest place I had seen in my life. Men drove along in the dark on donkeys, whipping them as they struggled. I told Mostafa that I had seen what Idlib was like on the news because of the violence. He blamed it on media hype.
He pulled in opposite what looked like a fruit-and-vegetable shop and told me to wait. I pulled the scarf over my face to block the stench. Within minutes, there was a deafening noise and in the rear-view mirror I saw what looked like a 1,000 protesters, mostly men, waving flags and carrying a makeshift coffin.
I locked the doors. Women were grabbing their children and running. The car began to rock violently – for a brief moment, I thought it was going to be turned over, but after a few minutes, the crowd disappeared around the corner chanting: ‘Death to the president, death to the president.’
We then drove through army checkpoints and arrived at Mostafa’s village, Nairab.
One of the first things to strike me were the green lights on the top of three buildings – mosques. This was clearly a very Muslim area and home, perhaps, to extreme fundamentalists. The village looked like a compound, the tall walls covered in graffiti, but it was only afterwards that I learned how dangerous it was. The Syrian army shot people on the streets most days for protesting.
Mostafa’s house did, at least, look habitable. He had been sending money home when he was working in construction in Cyprus. He ushered me in – obviously no one was meant to see me.
I was elated to be reunited with my little girl. Yet as the door opened and she walked through, it took me a moment to recognise her. May’s long brown hair was tightly plaited and she was wearing a cheap pair of black trousers and red Arabic clogs. Her black and white top had cheap lace around the neck and sleeves. It was typical Arab village clothing.
She clearly didn’t know what to say. She looked nervously at her father before saying: ‘Mama, look. I told you I would mind my Nintendo for you. I kept it safe.’
I felt like bursting into tears. She treasured her game console and it had obviously been her lifesaver in this hellhole. She sat on my lap and Mostafa left the room. As soon as he was gone, we started to kiss and hug. May looked around and she whispered: ‘Mama, I’m really worried. I was meant to start school.’
I replied: ‘Don’t worry, love. I rang the school and I told them that you were on holiday.’
May relaxed. She told me how her father had told her they were going to a new shopping centre to buy a Barbie. She believed him. In fact, it was an airport, not a mall. He bought her a doll in the duty-free shop, but when she went outside she saw the aircraft and began to cry.
She told him that she didn’t want to go on a plane, that her Mama had said she was never to get on a plane without her. But he beat her repeatedly until she got on the flight, sobbing.
I didn’t know what to say except to tell her over and again how much I loved her and that nothing like that would ever happen to her again.
That night, we cuddled up and May fell asleep in my arms. I remember lying there, terrified to hear gunshots outside the window. It was a different, frightening world.
We had a chance to escape. I grabbed May and yelled 'Hang on and be brave'
I learned very quickly to be nice to my ex-husband. I had no rights. At any stage he could have beaten me to death and claimed I had been unfaithful. Thankfully, Mandy managed to keep the story from the British press and foreign TV stations, knowing Mostafa was volatile.
We lived on yogurt and rice, and when Mostafa’s cupboards were empty, his mother sent food. I wasn’t allowed to leave the house.
Every day I would struggle to look through the windows to the outside world, but there were bars and wire mesh on every window.
The lavatory – a hole in the ground – was horrible. Instead of toilet roll, there was a hosepipe coming out of the wall. The smell was horrendous, and the lavatory was right next to the kitchen.
When I turned on the kitchen tap, filthy brown water poured out. There was no way I would drink that, even if it was boiled.
I remember bursting into tears. I told Mostafa that I had spent all day listening to bombs exploding and gunfire and I was terrified. A huge row erupted, and I flung a chair across the room in fury and frustration. For the first time since I had met him, he just stood there and accepted it.
‘What’s done is done,’ he said. ‘I can’t change it. May will never leave Syria – never, ever – so get that into your head.’
I prayed the people-smugglers would come.
There was no fresh air in the house because he was so determined to keep me a prisoner. When I objected, he screamed at me, saying I wasn’t in Cyprus now, and he dragged me into the bathroom and punched me repeatedly.
I fell but he continued to beat me, hitting the back of my head and punching me in the side. May was watching from her bedroom and screaming: ‘I want my Mama, I want my Mama.’ Mostafa simply shoved me and said: ‘Die, you bitch.’
The next day, I rang Mandy and the first thing I said to her was: ‘Happy birthday, Sis.’ Her birthday was still important to me and May, I told her. I explained that I was hoping Mostafa would extend my visa for another 15 days – I had told him that if he let me stay longer, I would ensure that he was financially comfortable until I returned.
Mandy’s voice became very serious. She said: ‘Louise, no one’s coming for you. The Turkish guys have gone AWOL and it looks like the government has no powers to do anything. It’s just too dangerous. I hate to say this, but you are on your own.’
At this stage I was unaware that Mandy had paid the Turks €5,000 to get us out and they had absconded.
I heard Mostafa’s car pulling up. ‘Right,’ he said. ‘We are going into Idlib for your visa.’
We found a parking space some 300 yards away from the immigration office, he gathered the paperwork and got out of the car. I couldn’t believe Mostafa was leaving us on our own. As he walked away, he suddenly turned back and said: ‘I will leave the keys in the ignition and the car running as it is so hot. It will keep the air-conditioning on.’
Once he was out of sight, I pulled out my phone and sent a text to Mandy, saying: ‘I have a chance to run. No passport.’
A text came back immediately: ‘F*** it. Run.’
I turned to May and said: ‘May. We are going. Please hang on and be brave.’
We ran towards a taxi rank where three or four yellow cabs were waiting. I chose one driven by a man in his 50s with a kind face. I rang a contact in Cyprus and asked her to get someone who spoke Arabic. I told her our lives were at risk.
Within a minute someone called back. His name was Tariq. After a conversation with the cab driver on my phone, Tariq said: ‘You are in luck, Louise. This man will take you all the way to Damascus. But it is a five-and-a-half-hour drive and it is very dangerous.’
I didn’t know what exactly we would do once we reached the Syrian capital, but I was hoping he would take us straight to the Irish consulate.
We drove on dirt roads through areas I had never heard of – and some I had, including Hama and Homs, where people were being killed every day. I made sure that my hijab covered every hair on my head and that I made no eye contact.
After a few hours, we started to see signs for Damascus. One of them said it was 108km (67 miles) away. It might as well have said a million. May and I spoke to each other in whispers and said the Hail Mary together.
We came to yet another checkpoint. There were many soldiers, this time heavily armed. Some were clearly special forces, dressed in shirts and jeans. They were checking every single vehicle and making each car approach very slowly in single file. As we got closer, I could see a soldier staring in at me and May in the back of the car but he casually waved us on.
I saw the driver look in his rear-view mirror and smile. I knew this poor man could have lost everything, perhaps even his life, if he had been caught.
But just a few yards past the checkpoint, with mountains all around us, the car started to choke, smoke coming from the engine. I couldn’t believe it. I kept saying to the driver: ‘Yalla, yalla, yalla [move, move, move].’A soldier started to follow. But miraculously, we rolled away from him around a corner. And then the car just stopped. Dead.
There was a look of horror on the poor taxi driver’s face. In Arabic he just said: ‘Khalas [finished],’ and threw his hands up into the air. We were doomed.
The driver made some calls and a short while afterwards another taxi pulled in. Its driver attached a rope to our vehicle and started to tow us through this mountain range, a weird area covered in sand, with nothing else around – no birds, no animals of any sort, no noise – until, miles later, we could exchange cars.
Finally we arrived at a huge street with garages everywhere and shops selling spare parts. Damascus. We were safe. Our taxi driver opened our door and in Arabic said: ‘May God bless you and your beautiful daughter.’
I wanted to cry. I owe that man our lives.
The days went by in the safe house organised by Tariq. The Irish embassy was trying to locate the travel documents we needed to get us out of Syria, but without success. Then Mandy rang. She said: ‘Louise, I don’t know how to tell you this. This is the hardest phone call I have ever had to make.’ My heart missed a beat.
‘The Syrian government says you are wanted for kidnapping May,’ she continued. I felt weak. She went on to say that this was an extremely serious charge – if I was caught I would be imprisoned for life or stoned to death under sharia law. I didn’t know what to say. I had no words.
‘You are in severe danger,’ said Mandy. ‘Do not leave the apartment. This is very serious, Louise. Your lives are at risk.’
NEXT WEEK: Our terrifying journey across the mountains
Stolen: Escape From Syria, by Louise Monaghan, is published by Mainstream on Thursday, priced £12.99. To order your copy at the special price of £10.99 inc p&p call the Review Bookstore on 0843 382 1111 or visit mailshop.co.uk/books
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Dad sells 12-year-old daughter to employer's son (Istanbul, Turkey)
Dad is identified only as OSMAN Y. No mention of a mother in this story.
INVISIBLE MOTHER ALERT
http://www.todayszaman.com/news-270287-man-sold-daughter-for-tl-5000-reports-say.html
Man sold daughter for TL 5,000, reports say
2 February 2012 / TODAY'S ZAMAN, İSTANBUL
A man allegedly sold his 12-year-old daughter to a 54-year-old man in return for TL 5,000 and even signed a contract for the deal, Turkish newspapers reported on Thursday.
The incident took place six years ago but only came to light last week, when a number of newspapers reported on it. According to the press stories, Osman Y., father of then-12-year-old girl E.Y., sold his daughter to Yusuf A. in exchange for TL 5,000. Reports also noted Yusuf A., who was 54 at the time, was the employer of Osman Y.'s older son.
The two men even signed a handwritten sales agreement, a copy of which was published in Turkish newspapers on Sunday. The contract, apparently prepared by “the seller,” dated Feb. 12, 2006, features a paragraph written by Osman Y., which reads: “I have sold my daughter for TL 5,000. I handed my daughter E.Y. to Yusuf A. on Feb.12, 2006. I have received the payment in cash. My daughter will be under control of Yusuf A. from the above-mentioned date on. I give my consent as a father. The contract has been signed. The girl has also given consent and signed the contract.”
Yusuf A., who divorced his wife and has four children, allegedly took the girl to a hotel in Kemer, in Antalya, and allegedly raped her. E.Y. continued to attend school as she was held by Yusuf A.
When E.Y.'s guidance counselor asked students to write down something which bothered them, E.Y. left the classroom crying. Then, she told her teacher she had been sold by her father to her brother's boss. The teacher reported the case to the police.
A court case against Yusuf A. has been under way since 2006; however, there were contradictory reports in Turkish newspapers as to the details of the case. The most recent session of the trial took place on Wednesday in the Antalya 1st High Criminal Court.
Newspaper reports said Yusuf A. testified in court, denying he had had sexual intercourse with E.Y., but was arrested after his testimony on Wednesday. The next hearing is scheduled to take place in March. Also in Wednesday's hearing, a witness statement from a hotel receptionist that was read out confirmed Yusuf A. had brought the child to a hotel. However, it was not clear at what point in the judicial process this testimony was given.
It wasn't clear where E.Y. is currently residing.
INVISIBLE MOTHER ALERT
http://www.todayszaman.com/news-270287-man-sold-daughter-for-tl-5000-reports-say.html
Man sold daughter for TL 5,000, reports say
2 February 2012 / TODAY'S ZAMAN, İSTANBUL
A man allegedly sold his 12-year-old daughter to a 54-year-old man in return for TL 5,000 and even signed a contract for the deal, Turkish newspapers reported on Thursday.
The incident took place six years ago but only came to light last week, when a number of newspapers reported on it. According to the press stories, Osman Y., father of then-12-year-old girl E.Y., sold his daughter to Yusuf A. in exchange for TL 5,000. Reports also noted Yusuf A., who was 54 at the time, was the employer of Osman Y.'s older son.
The two men even signed a handwritten sales agreement, a copy of which was published in Turkish newspapers on Sunday. The contract, apparently prepared by “the seller,” dated Feb. 12, 2006, features a paragraph written by Osman Y., which reads: “I have sold my daughter for TL 5,000. I handed my daughter E.Y. to Yusuf A. on Feb.12, 2006. I have received the payment in cash. My daughter will be under control of Yusuf A. from the above-mentioned date on. I give my consent as a father. The contract has been signed. The girl has also given consent and signed the contract.”
Yusuf A., who divorced his wife and has four children, allegedly took the girl to a hotel in Kemer, in Antalya, and allegedly raped her. E.Y. continued to attend school as she was held by Yusuf A.
When E.Y.'s guidance counselor asked students to write down something which bothered them, E.Y. left the classroom crying. Then, she told her teacher she had been sold by her father to her brother's boss. The teacher reported the case to the police.
A court case against Yusuf A. has been under way since 2006; however, there were contradictory reports in Turkish newspapers as to the details of the case. The most recent session of the trial took place on Wednesday in the Antalya 1st High Criminal Court.
Newspaper reports said Yusuf A. testified in court, denying he had had sexual intercourse with E.Y., but was arrested after his testimony on Wednesday. The next hearing is scheduled to take place in March. Also in Wednesday's hearing, a witness statement from a hotel receptionist that was read out confirmed Yusuf A. had brought the child to a hotel. However, it was not clear at what point in the judicial process this testimony was given.
It wasn't clear where E.Y. is currently residing.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Dad stab mom, mother-in-law to death, abducts infant son (Thame in Oxfordshire, England)
UNNAMED DAD has been taken in for "questioning." Notice that you have to slog through five paragraphs to find out that this crime involves the father of the abducted child, not a random "man." And then we have a double murder blamed on a "furious row." Disagreements don't kill people. Killers kill people. Unless Mom was also armed with a weapon, this is properly called an criminal attack that ended in the homicide of two people. Not a "row."
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/09/05/man-stabs-mum-daughter-to-death-then-flees-with-baby-115875-23396649/
Man stabs mum & daughter to death.. then flees with baby
by Adrian Shaw, Daily Mirror 5/09/2011
A MAN knifed two women to death and slashed a third yesterday before fleeing with a baby boy in his arms.
Horrified police found the bodies of a 50-year-old and 28-year-old, thought to be mother and daughter, with multiple stab wounds within a few feet of one another.
A third woman, aged 19, was also knifed and was taken to hospital with non life-threatening injuries.
Police arrested a man of 21 in a nearby street 40 minutes later and were last night quizzing him on suspicion of murder.
A neighbour said the family were Turkish and the father of the child allegedly lashed out with a knife following a furious row.
They added: “I’ve been told that he then left the house brandishing a knife with the little boy, who is one or two years old.”
The incident happened at a two storey house in a cul-de-sac in the picturesque town of Thame in Oxfordshire early yesterday. The area is regularly used as a setting for ITV’s Midsomer Murders.
The two stabbing victims were certified dead at the scene.
It is believed the 50-year-old, named locally as Julie Sahin, was knifed in the heart and throat. The 28-year-old is recently thought to have wed a Turkish man.
He recently moved into the home with his wife’s mother, father and the wife’s two young daughters from another relationship.
Landlord Mark Field said: “I went there this morning in disbelief and found police there and it all cordoned off. I could not go inside but I saw where police had marked bloodstains on the doorstep.”
Neighbours were woken up by the sound of a police helicopter and a man was later arrested in Thame market place.
A car park was cordoned off as officers and forensic specialists carried out a search of a car.
Senior investigating officer Det Chief Insp Joe Kidman said: “We have arrested a man on suspicion of murder.
“At this time it appears that all parties are known to each other and we are not seeking anyone else in connection with this case.”
The man who was arrested was taken to Abingdon police station in Oxfordshire for questioning.
A police spokesman said: “Postmortem examinations on two women will be conducted to determine how they died, but at this time it appears they may have sustained stab wounds during the incident.”
One neighbour, who asked not to be named, said: “I don’t know the people involved but Thame is a delightful town.
“It’s a shock that something like this has happened here.
“I have lived here for 12 years and this is the first time that I have had a major incident in my street.
“I heard a helicopter flying overhead but I presumed there had been a car accident.
“It had its searchlight on and they must have been looking for someone. People haven’t been allowed to take their cars out.”
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/09/05/man-stabs-mum-daughter-to-death-then-flees-with-baby-115875-23396649/
Man stabs mum & daughter to death.. then flees with baby
by Adrian Shaw, Daily Mirror 5/09/2011
A MAN knifed two women to death and slashed a third yesterday before fleeing with a baby boy in his arms.
Horrified police found the bodies of a 50-year-old and 28-year-old, thought to be mother and daughter, with multiple stab wounds within a few feet of one another.
A third woman, aged 19, was also knifed and was taken to hospital with non life-threatening injuries.
Police arrested a man of 21 in a nearby street 40 minutes later and were last night quizzing him on suspicion of murder.
A neighbour said the family were Turkish and the father of the child allegedly lashed out with a knife following a furious row.
They added: “I’ve been told that he then left the house brandishing a knife with the little boy, who is one or two years old.”
The incident happened at a two storey house in a cul-de-sac in the picturesque town of Thame in Oxfordshire early yesterday. The area is regularly used as a setting for ITV’s Midsomer Murders.
The two stabbing victims were certified dead at the scene.
It is believed the 50-year-old, named locally as Julie Sahin, was knifed in the heart and throat. The 28-year-old is recently thought to have wed a Turkish man.
He recently moved into the home with his wife’s mother, father and the wife’s two young daughters from another relationship.
Landlord Mark Field said: “I went there this morning in disbelief and found police there and it all cordoned off. I could not go inside but I saw where police had marked bloodstains on the doorstep.”
Neighbours were woken up by the sound of a police helicopter and a man was later arrested in Thame market place.
A car park was cordoned off as officers and forensic specialists carried out a search of a car.
Senior investigating officer Det Chief Insp Joe Kidman said: “We have arrested a man on suspicion of murder.
“At this time it appears that all parties are known to each other and we are not seeking anyone else in connection with this case.”
The man who was arrested was taken to Abingdon police station in Oxfordshire for questioning.
A police spokesman said: “Postmortem examinations on two women will be conducted to determine how they died, but at this time it appears they may have sustained stab wounds during the incident.”
One neighbour, who asked not to be named, said: “I don’t know the people involved but Thame is a delightful town.
“It’s a shock that something like this has happened here.
“I have lived here for 12 years and this is the first time that I have had a major incident in my street.
“I heard a helicopter flying overhead but I presumed there had been a car accident.
“It had its searchlight on and they must have been looking for someone. People haven’t been allowed to take their cars out.”
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Dad who impregnated, murdered daughter in 1996 finally gets life sentence (Kiel, Germany)
UNNAMED DAD, even after conviction. Notice that he sent Mom out of the home before the murder.
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/europe/news/article_1648366.php/Man-who-impregnated-and-murdered-daughter-gets-life-in-Germany
Man who impregnated and murdered daughter gets life in Germany
Jun 29, 2011, 16:16 GMT
Kiel, Germany - A court in Germany on Wednesday sentenced a man to life for murdering his 29-year-old daughter after getting her pregnant.
The crime, which took place in 1996 in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein, was only discovered last year when the victim's younger sister went to the police. The 69-year-old man was arrested two days before Christmas 2010.
The murdered woman, who had learning difficulties, was Turkish and had been staying with the family illegally after her tourist visa expired. Her disappearance, therefore, went unnoticed by authorities.
Her father had lived in Germany for more than 40 years and taken German citizenship in 2001.
The younger daughter, now 33, told the court that he had threatened to kill her if she did not help to hide the body.
The dental assistant told the court that her father had told her in advance of his intention to kill her sister, saying: 'I think she's pregnant, I have to get rid of her.' She came home from school shortly afterwards to find the body in a bag on the balcony.
He had first buried his victim in a garage, but later dug it up and put the remains in the rubbish. But police later found bones in the garage with the help of sniffer dogs.
The man had sent his wife away to a health resort at the time of the crime and when she later asked where her daughter was he told her that the police had deported her back to Turkey.
He then forbade her from trying to visit her daughter and later told her she had been killed in an earthquake.
It was the mother's continual demands to know what had happened to her older daughter which eventually caused her to go to the police, the younger daughter said.
Police are now investigating her for being an accessory to murder and for not reporting her father when she first heard of his intentions.
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/europe/news/article_1648366.php/Man-who-impregnated-and-murdered-daughter-gets-life-in-Germany
Man who impregnated and murdered daughter gets life in Germany
Jun 29, 2011, 16:16 GMT
Kiel, Germany - A court in Germany on Wednesday sentenced a man to life for murdering his 29-year-old daughter after getting her pregnant.
The crime, which took place in 1996 in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein, was only discovered last year when the victim's younger sister went to the police. The 69-year-old man was arrested two days before Christmas 2010.
The murdered woman, who had learning difficulties, was Turkish and had been staying with the family illegally after her tourist visa expired. Her disappearance, therefore, went unnoticed by authorities.
Her father had lived in Germany for more than 40 years and taken German citizenship in 2001.
The younger daughter, now 33, told the court that he had threatened to kill her if she did not help to hide the body.
The dental assistant told the court that her father had told her in advance of his intention to kill her sister, saying: 'I think she's pregnant, I have to get rid of her.' She came home from school shortly afterwards to find the body in a bag on the balcony.
He had first buried his victim in a garage, but later dug it up and put the remains in the rubbish. But police later found bones in the garage with the help of sniffer dogs.
The man had sent his wife away to a health resort at the time of the crime and when she later asked where her daughter was he told her that the police had deported her back to Turkey.
He then forbade her from trying to visit her daughter and later told her she had been killed in an earthquake.
It was the mother's continual demands to know what had happened to her older daughter which eventually caused her to go to the police, the younger daughter said.
Police are now investigating her for being an accessory to murder and for not reporting her father when she first heard of his intentions.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Teenage girl buried alive for talking to boys; father, grandfather arrested (Istanbul, Turkey)
An UNNAMED DAD (and unnamed grandfather) have been arrested for burying a 16-year-old girl alive for "talking to boys." HALF of Turkey's murders are "honor" killings of this type.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/04/girl-buried-alive-turkey
Turkish girl, 16, buried alive for talking to boys
Death reopens debate over 'honour' killings in Turkey, which account for half of all the country's murders
Robert Tait in Istanbul guardian.co.uk, Thursday 4 February 2010 19.03 GMT
Turkish police have recovered the body of a 16-year-old girl they say was buried alive by relatives in an "honour" killing carried out as punishment for talking to boys.
The girl, who has been identified only by the initials MM, was found in a sitting position with her hands tied, in a two-metre hole dug under a chicken pen outside her home in Kahta, in the south-eastern province of Adiyaman.
Police made the discovery in December after a tip-off from an informant, the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported on its website.
The girl had previously been reported missing.
The informant told the police she had been killed following a family "council" meeting.
Her father and grandfather are said to have been arrested and held in custody pending trial. It is unclear whether they have been charged. The girl's mother was arrested but was later released.
Media reports said the father had told relatives he was unhappy that his daughter – one of nine children – had male friends. The grandfather is said to have beaten her for having relations with the opposite sex.
A postmortem examination revealed large amounts of soil in her lungs and stomach, indicating that she had been alive and conscious while being buried. Her body showed no signs of bruising.
The discovery will reopen the emotive debate in Turkey about "honour" killings, which are particularly prevalent in the impoverished south-east.
Official figures have indicated that more than 200 such killings take place each year, accounting for around half of all murders in Turkey.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/04/girl-buried-alive-turkey
Turkish girl, 16, buried alive for talking to boys
Death reopens debate over 'honour' killings in Turkey, which account for half of all the country's murders
Robert Tait in Istanbul guardian.co.uk, Thursday 4 February 2010 19.03 GMT
Turkish police have recovered the body of a 16-year-old girl they say was buried alive by relatives in an "honour" killing carried out as punishment for talking to boys.
The girl, who has been identified only by the initials MM, was found in a sitting position with her hands tied, in a two-metre hole dug under a chicken pen outside her home in Kahta, in the south-eastern province of Adiyaman.
Police made the discovery in December after a tip-off from an informant, the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported on its website.
The girl had previously been reported missing.
The informant told the police she had been killed following a family "council" meeting.
Her father and grandfather are said to have been arrested and held in custody pending trial. It is unclear whether they have been charged. The girl's mother was arrested but was later released.
Media reports said the father had told relatives he was unhappy that his daughter – one of nine children – had male friends. The grandfather is said to have beaten her for having relations with the opposite sex.
A postmortem examination revealed large amounts of soil in her lungs and stomach, indicating that she had been alive and conscious while being buried. Her body showed no signs of bruising.
The discovery will reopen the emotive debate in Turkey about "honour" killings, which are particularly prevalent in the impoverished south-east.
Official figures have indicated that more than 200 such killings take place each year, accounting for around half of all murders in Turkey.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Honor Killing: Why did police send Tulay Goren home to die by her violent father? (United Kingdom)
Dad MEHMET GOREN has been sentenced to 22 years in prison for the "honor killing" of his daughter. But I suspect that the usual police bumbling, incompetence, stupidity (and corruption?) in investigating the father's abuse before the murder and responding to the girl's pleas for help will probably go unpunished.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/6835301/Honour-killing-why-did-police-send-girl-home-to-die-by-her-violent-father.html
Honour killing: why did police send Tulay Goren home to die by her violent father?
Tulay Goren, the Muslim schoolgirl murdered by her father in an "honour killing" repeatedly told police in the days before her death how she was being threatened and assaulted.
By John Bingham
Published: 7:00AM GMT 18 Dec 2009
Tulay and her family were in contact with officers nine times over a 10-day period just before her death, as she continued to be assaulted by her violent father, Mehmet Goren.
Police are now facing calls for an investigation into "missed opportunities" and claims that they "failed miserably" to prevent the murder, it can be disclosed.
It came as Tulay’s father, Mehmet Goren, was jailed for 22 years for her murder in a case which exposed the practice of honour violence in Britain.
Jailing Goren, Mr Justice Bean said that the term “honour killing” was a “grotesque distortion” of the language. “There is nothing honorable about such a hideous practice or the peope who carry it out,” he said.
Although the police investigation into Tulay’s death is being hailed as a landmark, it can now be disclosed that there were a series of 'missed' opportunities that could have helped save Tulay’s life in 1999.
In the weeks before her disappearance, Tulay:
:: Ran away from home twice.
:: Personally reported two attacks by her father, while her boyfriend also reported an assault.
:: Asked to be sent to a children’s home rather than go back to her family.
:: Requested that officers note down her assault complaints down in case of future attacks.
Meanwhile, her male relatives complained to police about her boyfriend, saying that he was “pestering” her prompting warnings not to take matters into their own hands.
Goren even went to the police demanding his daughter underwent a virginity test – an act which experts in honour killing said should itself have sounded “alarm bells”.
When Tulay refused to go home, police divulged her whereabouts to her family and allowed them to persuade her to return to them. Although she later run away again, she was lured home three weeks later and disappeared the next day.
The Old Bailey was told how Tulay, an Alevi Muslim, came to Britain at the age of 12 from the Kurdish region of southern Turkey.
Desperate for a 'way out', she became besotted with Halil Unal when she met him at the clothes factory where she worked during the school holidays. She told a friend she may have been pregnant.
But she was assaulted repeatedly by her father, who was angered by her relationship with Mr Unal, who was twice her age and a Sunni Muslim.
The Alevi minority has long claimed to have suffered persecution from the Sunni majority in Kurdish Turkey because of their less mainstream form of Islam.
Tulay was said to be in love with her boyfriend, but to her father the affair made her a "worthless commodity" because he could not marry her off for £5,000.
She ran away several times, to be with her boyfriend, telling him her father had tortured her, before being dragged back home on January 6, where Goren beat her and tied her up. In despair, she told her mother she wanted to die.
The following day, Goren, a part-time fish and chip shop worker, told his eight-year-old son Tuncay to kiss Tulay goodbye as he would never see his sister again.
How Tulay was killed remains a mystery but detectives believe Goren may have smothered her or strangled her with the washing line.
After she was killed, it is thought Tulay's body was buried in the garden of the family home before being dug up and disposed of.
Senior officers at the Metropolitan Police now acknowledge that there may have been "tell-tale" signs that could have saved the schoolgirl.
It is claimed officers may have actually put Tulay in even greater danger by allowing her family to take her home after she had complained about violence at the hands of her father, a convicted criminal.
Experts on 'honour killings' said that events in the run-up to her disappearance of Tulay should have “screamed” for something to be done.
A failure to recognise the warning signs - including the nine separate contacts with police - meant that opportunities to save her life were missed, they claimed.
It can also be disclosed that Goren, who served time in jail in Turkey and Saudi Arabia for theft before he came to Britain with his family seeking asylum in 1996, had attempted to murder members of his family before.
Relatives have told how he once attempted to gas his wife, Hanim, and children while they slept. He also tried to force Hanim to drink poison.
Two specialists on honour killings have suggested that police may have put Tulay in even greater danger by allowing her family to take her home after she had complained about violence.
They said that the case bore striking similarities to that of Banaz Mahmood, a young Kurdish woman whose murder in 2006 highlighted a catalogue of missed opportunities.
A culture of political correctness, with officers afraid to intervene for fear of being accused of racism, may also have played a part, they claimed.
“They failed Tulay miserably and the sad fact is it will happen again,” said Jasvinder Sanghera, an author and expert witness in honour violence cases.
“It just screams the profile of a victim of the kind that we see day in day out."
Diana Nammi, director of the Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation (IKWRO), which deals with hundreds of cases of honour-based violence and intimidation every year, added: "There were many missed opportunities that could have been taken to protect her and they didn’t."
She added: “There is no doubt about it, if police had acted differently and if police had known how to deal with honour killing cases she would be alive today
“They should not have contacted her family to say that she was in the police station, they should not have invited the family to come and visit her, they never should have disclosed any information about her whereabouts to her family.
“By disclosing and sharing information with the family they simply made the situation even more dangerous for her.”
The conviction of Goren followed a police investigation which saw detectives travel eventually to Kurdistan to learn about honour killings. Turkish psychiatrists were then brought to give evidence on the issue as expert witnesses in a British court for the first time.
Their findings, coupled with a greater understanding of 'honour' violence, persuaded the Crown Prosecution Service to overturn a decision 10 years ago not to bring charges against Mehmet Goren over Tulay's disappearance.
It was only after greater awareness of the phenomenon of honour killings, that a new team of detectives began a reinvestigation five years ago. In a ground-breaking investigation, police travelled to Kurdistan to learn about local "honour codes" as they built their case.
Scotland Yard has denied that mistakes had been made but added the police had been on a “significant journey” in the last 10 years and now had new procedures in place to pick up warning signs.
DCI Gerry Campbell, head of the Metropolitan Police’s Community Safety unit, said: “I am confident that those tell-tale risk indicators around honour based violence would (now) be identified by investigators, front line staff and their managers.”
However, there are understood to be no plans for an internal review of the case and it has never been referred to the police watchdog, the IPCC.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/6835301/Honour-killing-why-did-police-send-girl-home-to-die-by-her-violent-father.html
Honour killing: why did police send Tulay Goren home to die by her violent father?
Tulay Goren, the Muslim schoolgirl murdered by her father in an "honour killing" repeatedly told police in the days before her death how she was being threatened and assaulted.
By John Bingham
Published: 7:00AM GMT 18 Dec 2009
Tulay and her family were in contact with officers nine times over a 10-day period just before her death, as she continued to be assaulted by her violent father, Mehmet Goren.
Police are now facing calls for an investigation into "missed opportunities" and claims that they "failed miserably" to prevent the murder, it can be disclosed.
It came as Tulay’s father, Mehmet Goren, was jailed for 22 years for her murder in a case which exposed the practice of honour violence in Britain.
Jailing Goren, Mr Justice Bean said that the term “honour killing” was a “grotesque distortion” of the language. “There is nothing honorable about such a hideous practice or the peope who carry it out,” he said.
Although the police investigation into Tulay’s death is being hailed as a landmark, it can now be disclosed that there were a series of 'missed' opportunities that could have helped save Tulay’s life in 1999.
In the weeks before her disappearance, Tulay:
:: Ran away from home twice.
:: Personally reported two attacks by her father, while her boyfriend also reported an assault.
:: Asked to be sent to a children’s home rather than go back to her family.
:: Requested that officers note down her assault complaints down in case of future attacks.
Meanwhile, her male relatives complained to police about her boyfriend, saying that he was “pestering” her prompting warnings not to take matters into their own hands.
Goren even went to the police demanding his daughter underwent a virginity test – an act which experts in honour killing said should itself have sounded “alarm bells”.
When Tulay refused to go home, police divulged her whereabouts to her family and allowed them to persuade her to return to them. Although she later run away again, she was lured home three weeks later and disappeared the next day.
The Old Bailey was told how Tulay, an Alevi Muslim, came to Britain at the age of 12 from the Kurdish region of southern Turkey.
Desperate for a 'way out', she became besotted with Halil Unal when she met him at the clothes factory where she worked during the school holidays. She told a friend she may have been pregnant.
But she was assaulted repeatedly by her father, who was angered by her relationship with Mr Unal, who was twice her age and a Sunni Muslim.
The Alevi minority has long claimed to have suffered persecution from the Sunni majority in Kurdish Turkey because of their less mainstream form of Islam.
Tulay was said to be in love with her boyfriend, but to her father the affair made her a "worthless commodity" because he could not marry her off for £5,000.
She ran away several times, to be with her boyfriend, telling him her father had tortured her, before being dragged back home on January 6, where Goren beat her and tied her up. In despair, she told her mother she wanted to die.
The following day, Goren, a part-time fish and chip shop worker, told his eight-year-old son Tuncay to kiss Tulay goodbye as he would never see his sister again.
How Tulay was killed remains a mystery but detectives believe Goren may have smothered her or strangled her with the washing line.
After she was killed, it is thought Tulay's body was buried in the garden of the family home before being dug up and disposed of.
Senior officers at the Metropolitan Police now acknowledge that there may have been "tell-tale" signs that could have saved the schoolgirl.
It is claimed officers may have actually put Tulay in even greater danger by allowing her family to take her home after she had complained about violence at the hands of her father, a convicted criminal.
Experts on 'honour killings' said that events in the run-up to her disappearance of Tulay should have “screamed” for something to be done.
A failure to recognise the warning signs - including the nine separate contacts with police - meant that opportunities to save her life were missed, they claimed.
It can also be disclosed that Goren, who served time in jail in Turkey and Saudi Arabia for theft before he came to Britain with his family seeking asylum in 1996, had attempted to murder members of his family before.
Relatives have told how he once attempted to gas his wife, Hanim, and children while they slept. He also tried to force Hanim to drink poison.
Two specialists on honour killings have suggested that police may have put Tulay in even greater danger by allowing her family to take her home after she had complained about violence.
They said that the case bore striking similarities to that of Banaz Mahmood, a young Kurdish woman whose murder in 2006 highlighted a catalogue of missed opportunities.
A culture of political correctness, with officers afraid to intervene for fear of being accused of racism, may also have played a part, they claimed.
“They failed Tulay miserably and the sad fact is it will happen again,” said Jasvinder Sanghera, an author and expert witness in honour violence cases.
“It just screams the profile of a victim of the kind that we see day in day out."
Diana Nammi, director of the Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation (IKWRO), which deals with hundreds of cases of honour-based violence and intimidation every year, added: "There were many missed opportunities that could have been taken to protect her and they didn’t."
She added: “There is no doubt about it, if police had acted differently and if police had known how to deal with honour killing cases she would be alive today
“They should not have contacted her family to say that she was in the police station, they should not have invited the family to come and visit her, they never should have disclosed any information about her whereabouts to her family.
“By disclosing and sharing information with the family they simply made the situation even more dangerous for her.”
The conviction of Goren followed a police investigation which saw detectives travel eventually to Kurdistan to learn about honour killings. Turkish psychiatrists were then brought to give evidence on the issue as expert witnesses in a British court for the first time.
Their findings, coupled with a greater understanding of 'honour' violence, persuaded the Crown Prosecution Service to overturn a decision 10 years ago not to bring charges against Mehmet Goren over Tulay's disappearance.
It was only after greater awareness of the phenomenon of honour killings, that a new team of detectives began a reinvestigation five years ago. In a ground-breaking investigation, police travelled to Kurdistan to learn about local "honour codes" as they built their case.
Scotland Yard has denied that mistakes had been made but added the police had been on a “significant journey” in the last 10 years and now had new procedures in place to pick up warning signs.
DCI Gerry Campbell, head of the Metropolitan Police’s Community Safety unit, said: “I am confident that those tell-tale risk indicators around honour based violence would (now) be identified by investigators, front line staff and their managers.”
However, there are understood to be no plans for an internal review of the case and it has never been referred to the police watchdog, the IPCC.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
I found my daughter tied up, mom tells jury (London, England, United Kingdom)
The mother's heartbreaking (and horrifying) testimony from the trial of dad MEHMET GOREN, who is accused of murdering his 15-year-old daughter in an "honor killing."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/20/honour-killing-tuley-goren-mehmet
I found my daughter tied up, mother tells 'honour killing' jury
Tuley Goren was lying on floor, says wife of accused
Three deny murdering 15-year-old a decade ago
Karen McVeigh guardian.co.uk,
Tuesday 20 October 2009 20.13 BST
The mother of an alleged 15-year-old "honour killing" victim told a court how the day before she died, she found her daughter lying tied up, face-down on the floor, with her hands and feet black and bruised from being bound.
Mehmet Goren, 49, denies murdering Tuley Goren in January 1999. Her body has never been found.
His wife, Hanim Goren, who is giving evidence against him through a translator, broke down in the witness box as she spoke of the days before Tuley's killing and the moment when she "looked at me in the eye for the last time".
She told the court her husband said he had tied her up after she ran off with her boyfriend Halil Unal, to stop her doing it again. The court heard that the family were against the relationship because Unal was a Sunni Muslim, while they were Alevis and at 30, he was 15 years older than Tuley. Her daughter had gone to stay with Unal, but on 6 January 1999 she and her husband brought her home, she said.
Later that day Hanim Goren returned from picking up two of her younger children, Tuncay, 8, and Hatice, 13, from school to find her husband and his brother, Cuma, sitting downstairs without Tuley, she told the court. She went upstairs to find the schoolgirl in her bedroom.
She said: "I saw Tuley lying on the floor face down, her hands and feet were tied up. Her hands and her feet were all purple and black. Hatice cried and screamed and jumped on her and the two of us tried to untie her. Tuley said: 'Mum don't untie me I want to die.'
"In the meantime, Mehmet had come from downstairs: 'Don't untie, don't touch, don't untie her,' he said. Hatice and I were crying."
After Mehmet Goren explained that she had been tied because she had run off, she was untied. But later that night, after Tuley tried to escape through a bathroom window, her father slapped her, saying to her: "My daughter, what are you trying to do?" He then drugged her, crushing up a sleeping pill and putting it into her coffee, Goren told the jury. She said that Tuley was suspicious but drank the coffee after her father took a sip with the words: "So what? If someone is going to die, let me die." The next day, Mehmet Goren told his wife not to send the children to school.
In an emotional testimony during which she began weeping, she told the court: "She [Tuley] looked at me in the eye for the last time. She said: 'Mum I don't want to eat.' I said: 'Please take a little bit.' She had not eaten the night before."
She told the court her husband had told her to take the other children to Cuma's house. As they left, he told his son, Tuncay: "Come let Tulay kiss you … this will be the last time you will see each other."
Goren stayed the night at Cuma Goren's house, while Mehmet Goren stayed elsewhere. At one point, he called her to tell her that Tuley had run away again.
She said: "Mehmet told me she ran away. I didn't believe it. I was thinking about this. I had a feeling I wondered maybe he had tied her up in the house to punish her again. I couldn't stay still."
She told the court how, after that day, she noticed scratches and a "deep wound" to her husband's hand. When she asked him about it, he told her he had slipped on a banana skin. She said that he had washed his clothes after Tuley disappeared. There were two kitchen knives, much of a roll of black dustbin bags and a washing line missing from their home.
Cuma Goren, 42, from Walthamstow, London, and Mehmet's other brother, Ali, 55, from Walthamstow, also deny murdering Tuley on 7 January 1999. Mehmet Goren and his two brothers also deny conspiring to murder Unal between May 1998 and February 1999. The trial continues.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/20/honour-killing-tuley-goren-mehmet
I found my daughter tied up, mother tells 'honour killing' jury
Tuley Goren was lying on floor, says wife of accused
Three deny murdering 15-year-old a decade ago
Karen McVeigh guardian.co.uk,
Tuesday 20 October 2009 20.13 BST
The mother of an alleged 15-year-old "honour killing" victim told a court how the day before she died, she found her daughter lying tied up, face-down on the floor, with her hands and feet black and bruised from being bound.
Mehmet Goren, 49, denies murdering Tuley Goren in January 1999. Her body has never been found.
His wife, Hanim Goren, who is giving evidence against him through a translator, broke down in the witness box as she spoke of the days before Tuley's killing and the moment when she "looked at me in the eye for the last time".
She told the court her husband said he had tied her up after she ran off with her boyfriend Halil Unal, to stop her doing it again. The court heard that the family were against the relationship because Unal was a Sunni Muslim, while they were Alevis and at 30, he was 15 years older than Tuley. Her daughter had gone to stay with Unal, but on 6 January 1999 she and her husband brought her home, she said.
Later that day Hanim Goren returned from picking up two of her younger children, Tuncay, 8, and Hatice, 13, from school to find her husband and his brother, Cuma, sitting downstairs without Tuley, she told the court. She went upstairs to find the schoolgirl in her bedroom.
She said: "I saw Tuley lying on the floor face down, her hands and feet were tied up. Her hands and her feet were all purple and black. Hatice cried and screamed and jumped on her and the two of us tried to untie her. Tuley said: 'Mum don't untie me I want to die.'
"In the meantime, Mehmet had come from downstairs: 'Don't untie, don't touch, don't untie her,' he said. Hatice and I were crying."
After Mehmet Goren explained that she had been tied because she had run off, she was untied. But later that night, after Tuley tried to escape through a bathroom window, her father slapped her, saying to her: "My daughter, what are you trying to do?" He then drugged her, crushing up a sleeping pill and putting it into her coffee, Goren told the jury. She said that Tuley was suspicious but drank the coffee after her father took a sip with the words: "So what? If someone is going to die, let me die." The next day, Mehmet Goren told his wife not to send the children to school.
In an emotional testimony during which she began weeping, she told the court: "She [Tuley] looked at me in the eye for the last time. She said: 'Mum I don't want to eat.' I said: 'Please take a little bit.' She had not eaten the night before."
She told the court her husband had told her to take the other children to Cuma's house. As they left, he told his son, Tuncay: "Come let Tulay kiss you … this will be the last time you will see each other."
Goren stayed the night at Cuma Goren's house, while Mehmet Goren stayed elsewhere. At one point, he called her to tell her that Tuley had run away again.
She said: "Mehmet told me she ran away. I didn't believe it. I was thinking about this. I had a feeling I wondered maybe he had tied her up in the house to punish her again. I couldn't stay still."
She told the court how, after that day, she noticed scratches and a "deep wound" to her husband's hand. When she asked him about it, he told her he had slipped on a banana skin. She said that he had washed his clothes after Tuley disappeared. There were two kitchen knives, much of a roll of black dustbin bags and a washing line missing from their home.
Cuma Goren, 42, from Walthamstow, London, and Mehmet's other brother, Ali, 55, from Walthamstow, also deny murdering Tuley on 7 January 1999. Mehmet Goren and his two brothers also deny conspiring to murder Unal between May 1998 and February 1999. The trial continues.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Dad on trial for "honor killing" of 15-year-old daughter collapses in court (London, England, United Kingdom)
Dad MEHMET GOREN is on trial for the 1999 "honor killing" of his 15-year-old daughter. He collapsed in court as his wife gave testimony against him.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1221449/Father-accused-murdering-daughter-honour-killing-collapses-court-wife-takes-stand-evidence-him.html
Father accused of murdering daughter in 'honour killing' collapses in court as his wife gives evidence against him
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 2:54 PM on 19th October 2009
The father accused of murdering his own 15-year-old daughter today collapsed in the dock as his wife broke a code of silence and gave evidence against him.
Turkish Kurd Mehmet Goren, 49, had a fit and had to be helped to lie on the floor of the dock by prison officers at the Old Bailey as the stunned jury looked on.
The court proceedings were brought to an abrupt halt while the dock descended into chaos as an ambulance and doctor were called, interrupting Mehmet's wife Hanim, 45, who was giving evidence for the first time.
She had been giving evidence for just 45 minutes when Mehmet took a turn for the worse and slumped forward from his chair.
It is alleged their daughter was killed in 1999 after she fell in love with the wrong man Halil Unal, a manager of an East End sweatshop she met while doing work experience.
Mr Unal, was then 15 years older than the teenager and a Sunni Muslim, while the Goren family were Alevi Shi'a which was 'considered utterly unacceptable' in the rural communities they originated from in Eastern Turkey.
It is alleged her father Mehmet, 49, and her uncles Ali, 55, and Cuma, 42, in a 'family council' had decided the pair must die because Tulay was seen as a 'valueless commodity' after losing her virginity to him.
In a bid to restore their reputation the family had reluctantly agreed the pair could marry but she was too young - and because of the gossip in the community, the family felt their honour had been tarnished forever, it was claimed.
In January 1999 they tried to lure Halil to a trap but when that failed Tulay who had no passport disappeared without a trace.
Two weeks after the alleged attack, Mehmet attacked Halil with an axe after luring him to an ambush.
Mother of four Hanim told the court she married Mehmet when she was 16 and the family arrived from Turkey in the mid 1990s claiming asylum and lived off benefits.
However in 1998 she started work at the Hackney factory where Halil was the manager and Tulay came to work in the summer holidays.
But after being there just two days told her mum about the attention she was getting from Halil.
Through a Kurdish interpreter she told the court: 'She said 'mum, the manager, they call Halil the manager, asked me to be friends with him.' Mrs Goren told the court was shocked and angry.
'Apart from the age I was very very against it because he was a stranger. He was from a different town.
'I was very against it. I was against him I was very very angry.' The Goren family were Alevi muslims and Mr Unal was a Sunni, she explained to the jury.
But her father soon discovered Tulay had been sneaking out of school to see him, it was said.
Mr Unal had turned up at the Woodbridge High School pretending to be her uncle, the court was told.
Mrs Goren said: 'One day her father went to school. He apparently found out that Tulay had not been attending school.
'Apparently some person went to school and introduced himself as her uncle and took her.
'Then we asked around and asked around and it turned out to be that it was this person.
'Until that person went to her school, Tulay did not have any problems, not at school, not at home.'
At this point Mehmet Goren collapsed in the dock causing confusion with one interpreter saying his lips had gone blue.
Mehmet, Ali, and Cuma Goren denied murdering Tulay and conspiracy to murder Halil Unal.
The trial continues.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1221449/Father-accused-murdering-daughter-honour-killing-collapses-court-wife-takes-stand-evidence-him.html#ixzz0UOoAvRIz
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1221449/Father-accused-murdering-daughter-honour-killing-collapses-court-wife-takes-stand-evidence-him.html
Father accused of murdering daughter in 'honour killing' collapses in court as his wife gives evidence against him
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 2:54 PM on 19th October 2009
The father accused of murdering his own 15-year-old daughter today collapsed in the dock as his wife broke a code of silence and gave evidence against him.
Turkish Kurd Mehmet Goren, 49, had a fit and had to be helped to lie on the floor of the dock by prison officers at the Old Bailey as the stunned jury looked on.
The court proceedings were brought to an abrupt halt while the dock descended into chaos as an ambulance and doctor were called, interrupting Mehmet's wife Hanim, 45, who was giving evidence for the first time.
She had been giving evidence for just 45 minutes when Mehmet took a turn for the worse and slumped forward from his chair.
It is alleged their daughter was killed in 1999 after she fell in love with the wrong man Halil Unal, a manager of an East End sweatshop she met while doing work experience.
Mr Unal, was then 15 years older than the teenager and a Sunni Muslim, while the Goren family were Alevi Shi'a which was 'considered utterly unacceptable' in the rural communities they originated from in Eastern Turkey.
It is alleged her father Mehmet, 49, and her uncles Ali, 55, and Cuma, 42, in a 'family council' had decided the pair must die because Tulay was seen as a 'valueless commodity' after losing her virginity to him.
In a bid to restore their reputation the family had reluctantly agreed the pair could marry but she was too young - and because of the gossip in the community, the family felt their honour had been tarnished forever, it was claimed.
In January 1999 they tried to lure Halil to a trap but when that failed Tulay who had no passport disappeared without a trace.
Two weeks after the alleged attack, Mehmet attacked Halil with an axe after luring him to an ambush.
Mother of four Hanim told the court she married Mehmet when she was 16 and the family arrived from Turkey in the mid 1990s claiming asylum and lived off benefits.
However in 1998 she started work at the Hackney factory where Halil was the manager and Tulay came to work in the summer holidays.
But after being there just two days told her mum about the attention she was getting from Halil.
Through a Kurdish interpreter she told the court: 'She said 'mum, the manager, they call Halil the manager, asked me to be friends with him.' Mrs Goren told the court was shocked and angry.
'Apart from the age I was very very against it because he was a stranger. He was from a different town.
'I was very against it. I was against him I was very very angry.' The Goren family were Alevi muslims and Mr Unal was a Sunni, she explained to the jury.
But her father soon discovered Tulay had been sneaking out of school to see him, it was said.
Mr Unal had turned up at the Woodbridge High School pretending to be her uncle, the court was told.
Mrs Goren said: 'One day her father went to school. He apparently found out that Tulay had not been attending school.
'Apparently some person went to school and introduced himself as her uncle and took her.
'Then we asked around and asked around and it turned out to be that it was this person.
'Until that person went to her school, Tulay did not have any problems, not at school, not at home.'
At this point Mehmet Goren collapsed in the dock causing confusion with one interpreter saying his lips had gone blue.
Mehmet, Ali, and Cuma Goren denied murdering Tulay and conspiracy to murder Halil Unal.
The trial continues.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1221449/Father-accused-murdering-daughter-honour-killing-collapses-court-wife-takes-stand-evidence-him.html#ixzz0UOoAvRIz
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