Man gets reduced sentence of 25 years for murder of Ugandan woman in Turkey

Nankabirwa’s body was found at a morgue, a week after she left her house on Sept. 6, 2014. Police said she was killed after being pushed from the window of a fourth-floor apartment in the Fatih district. 

Dursun’s lawyer, Mehmet Şentürk, said Nankabirwa jumped out of the window to escape. 

Şentürk alleged that Nankabirwa went to Dursun’s house as a sex worker, after which they began arguing.

Dursun attempted to call the police after they physically attacked each other, but Nankabirwa jumped out of the window to escape from the police in order to avoid deportation, Şentürk alleged. 

Dursun’s lawyer’s statements raised eyebrows in the courtroom, while the lawyers for the plaintiffs also voiced their criticism at the lawyer’s racist comments. 

“They are black. Black people are strong. They are like that in boxing, basketball. My client could not throw her down the window alone. There would need to be at least two or three people from the neighborhood in order to throw her,” said Şentürk, prompting the people in the courtroom to say, “Don’t be racist.”

“If the court doesn’t agree, then we want a reduction in the sentence due to unjust provocation,” added the lawyer. 

Dursun confessed to the murder in his testimony at a police station in February 2015, claiming that he had brought Nankabirwa to his house for prostitution under the influence of an illegal drug. 

“We drank and started to dance. Then I pushed her out,” he said. The suspect later retracted his testimony at the prosecutor’s office, claiming that Nankabirwa committed suicide or fell accidentally.

Asked whether he had something to say in court before the trial ended, Dursun said he would have thrown her from somewhere else in the house if he had wanted to. 

“I’m the victim here. If I had wanted to push her from the window, I wouldn’t do it from that spot. We have a balcony at the back of the house; I would have pushed her from there,” Dursun said.