Authorities search body of Iraqi woman believed to be victim of femicide

ESKİŞEHİR

Turkish search and rescue authorities are looking for the body of an Iraqi woman who has been missing for more than three weeks and is believed to be a victim of a brutal homicide.

Settling in the central province of Eskişehir with her family five years ago, Sally Ali Challab (19) disappeared on Sept. 2, while her friend, Amjed Mohsin Mohammed, was caught in the northwestern province of Kırklareli as he was trying to cross into Bulgaria illegally.

A chainsaw, a knife and a bag were found during a search conducted by police forces at Mohammed’s residence, while traces of Sally’s blood were also detected on some clothes.

Security cameras captured the moments where Mohammed was seen throwing bags into different trash cans across the city wearing different clothes on the night of the incident, but no traces were found by the edges of the Porsuk Stream, in sewerage, or city dump.

As the search efforts are ongoing uninterruptedly in different parts of the city, a local court arrested Mohammed on the charges of deliberate murder. But he denies the allegations that he committed the crime.

Mohammed claims that Sally went to her friend on the night she disappeared, but the young woman’s family says that Sally was kidnapped and that she would not go anywhere, leaving both her passport and identity document behind.

Meanwhile, Sally’s friends gathered to hold a memorial service at a public park in Eskişehir for her, lighting candles, placing flowers in front of a large portrait of hers and praying for her fate.