The Turkish-language Hürriyetim reports that Hakki Demir’s sentence for killing his mother was reduced from life to twenty years. Why? Because it was an honor killing. Here is the story reported in English for Jihad Watch by Burcu Gezek Harbert:
Another Honor Killing case resolved in Turkey: The 19 year old mother slayer got away with 20 years
The Court deems the killing of 33 year old Sakine Demir an honor killing and reduces the 19 year old Hakki Demir’s jail time from life first to 36 years, then to 20 years.
At age 13, Sakine Demir, a native of Mardin Yuksekova, was forced to marry the 42-year-old Eyup Gursel under Islamic law. She left her 15-day-old baby with her husband’s family and ran away after claiming that she was being constantly beaten by her husband. The baby died of starvation.
Sakine married another older man and gave birth to nine more children, two of which were girls. Her husband became bedridden and Sakine started to frequent her relatives in distant parts of Turkey. She traveled to Ankara, Istanbul and Aydin, which led to much gossip. And the 19 year old Hakki found his mother in Kucuk Dikili of Seyhan. The confrontation turned into a big argument and Hakki stabbed his mother 17 times and then slit her throat. He walked out screaming “Don’t come close to me. Call the newspapers.”
Hakki Demir in trial for manslaughter appeared at the Adana court to hear the verdict. He claimed to have killed his mother, Sakine Demir, to clean the family”s honor: “My mom was prostituting in Istanbul. Everyone was talking about her ugly deeds. I decided to clean our honor. I found my mom at my aunt’s in Adana. I found her sleeping and stabbed her in the heart twice. She woke up and tried to scream. I covered her mouth and suffocated her. I stabbed her over and over again. I did it for my family”s honor. I regret it. But I had to do it.”
The court’s decision to sentence him to life time was reduced to first 36 years and then to 20 years of jail time due to the traditional basis of the murder.