Family donates organs of Turkish girl killed for helping harassed women in Germany

ISTANBUL / OFFENBACH

Candles are lit next to a photograph of Tugce, in front of the hospital in Offenbach, Germany, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2014. AP Photo

The family of Tuğçe Albayrak, who was declared brain dead after being beaten for trying to rescue two German women from being harassed, has donated their daughter’s organs.

Albayrak had had a donor card and her family donated her organs to achieve the 22-year-old girl’s last wish after she was declared brain dead on Nov. 26, according to private broadcaster NTV.

The medical equipment was switched off on Nov. 28, which was also her 23rd birthday, upon the family’s request. Hundreds of people gathered and lit candles in front of the hospital in the German city Offenbach to pay tribute to Albayrak, while her family cut her birthday cake in tears.

Albayrak, a 22-year-old student of Turkish-descent, went into the coma on Nov. 15 after she intervened between three men of Serbian-descent who were harassing two women in a restaurant in Offenbach. She was brutally beaten by one of the attackers, an 18-year-old identified as Sanel M., in a parking lot an hour after she had stepped in to help two women screaming for help in front of the restaurant’s bathroom.

The funeral ceremony for Albayrak will be held at a mosque belonging to Diyanet Turkish Islamic Union (DİTİB) in Waechtersbach and she will be laid to rest at a Bad Soden-Salmünster cemetery, Anadolu Agency has reported.

The funeral will likely be held Dec. 3, after an autopsy ordered by the prosecutor’s office is complete, said İsmail Erel, who spoke on the family’s behalf.

Meanwhile, German President Joachim Gauck called the Albayrak family to condole with them. “Like our citizens, I felt shocked in the face of this terrible attack. Tuğçe deserves great respect and admiration. She will always be a role model for us,” Gauck said in his message of condolences.