Aggravated life sentence sought for law student over murder of lecturer

Mesut Hasan Benli – ANKARA

An Ankara prosecutor is seeking an aggravated life sentence for a law student for killing a research assistant earlier this year at Çankaya University.

The indictment submitted to the Ankara 33th Heavy Penal Court said that İsmail Hikmet killed Ceren Damar Şenel on Jan. 2 after the academic caught him cheating in an exam.

The indictment demanded the aggravated life sentence on charges of “killing by planning, with monstrous feelings and torturing.”

In 2015, Şenel was appointed as the suspect’s counsel, the indictment said. Shortly after, the suspect reportedly started to hold grudges against Şenel thinking that she was not sufficiently concerned about his classes. The indictment also said that Şenel had also caught the suspect on another occasion in 2016 cheating again, leading to his suspension from the university for a week.

Following the latest cheating incident on Jan. 2 of this year, Hikmet confided in a friend that he would kill Şenel, but the friend did not see it likely, according to the indictment. Hikmet then went to his house, where he picked up the gun of his father, a retired police officer.

Going back to the campus, he shot Şenel in her room twice. Şenel fell on the floor before stabbing her 17 times, the indictment said.

Hikmet, in his testimony, however claimed that he did not go to Şenel’s room with the intention of killing her. “When she swore at me, I shot [her] twice, and then I lost myself.” The prosecutor however said in the indictment that the suspect’s testimony was not found “credible” and he was trying to get away with a lesser punishment.

The first hearing of the case will take place in the upcoming days at the Ankara 33th Heavy Penal Court.