Father wants daughter’s murderer’s body to be exhumed

ISTANBUL

Süreyya Karabulut, the father of Münevver Karabulut, who was brutally murdered 13 years ago in Istanbul, has made a legal application to exhume the body of his daughter’s murderer with the suspicion that he is still alive.

The country was badly shaken on March 3, 2009, when street cleaners found a decapitated woman’s body in a wastebin. It did not take so much time for the police to find out that 18-year-old Karabulut was murdered by her boyfriend, Cem Garipoğlu.

Garipoğlu, the nephew of a well-known family, was nabbed after nearly 200 days of runaway. On Oct. 10, 2014, Garipoğlu died in prison after committing suicide, but the Karabulut family never believed this as the officials did not let them see the dead body.

It was alleged for years that prison officials were bribed by the family, the murderer walked free and another dead body was buried instead of Garipoğlu.

“After Ramadan, I will apply to the court to open Cem Garipoğlu’s grave. It is my right to know the truth if he is alive or really dead,” Süreyya Karabulut told Demirören News Agency on April 11.

The father, in tears, noted that “after all these years, people still ask him if Garipoğlu really died or not.”

“I don’t know what I will face when the grave will be opened. But I will ask for it,” he added.

Rezan Epözdemir, the lawyer of the Karabulut family, described the procedures the family would follow. “They have questions. Due to law, we will ask to open the grave and take DNA samples from the body,” Epözdemir noted.

According to the lawyer, “exhuming the body of the murderer” was an “old idea,” but the “Karabulut family was not ready then for the outcomes.”

“At that time, the family members said they were still in pain due to their daughter’s death and did not want to relive the pain again,” he said. “But now, I have talked to the father. The application can be arranged after the Eid al-Fitr.”

When asked how he is feeling today, Süreyya Karabulut said that they survived tough days and that he is thankful that at least her daughter is buried in a grave where he can go and pray for her.

Following his trial, Garipoğlu was given a 24-year jail sentence for murder, and his mother and uncle served three years in prison for helping him to “clean the evidence.”

The Garipoğlu family paid a compensation fee of 1.3 million Turkish Liras ($88,275) to the Karabulut family due to court’s decision.