Istanbul court arrests suspect of brutal femicide

ISTANBUL

An Istanbul court have arrested Kemal (Delbe) Ayyıldız, the suspect in the killing of a female academic in Istanbul, on the charge of “deliberately killing with a monstrous feeling” as women’s organizations took to streets to protest the latest case of femicide in the country.

Aylin Sözer, a 48-year-old academic from Istanbul Aydın University, was brutally killed and burned with flammable substances at her residence on Dec. 29 in the city’s Maltepe district.

After committing the murder, the suspect entered the mobile banking application on Aylin Sözer’s phone and attempted to transfer the 260,000 Turkish Liras ($35,000) in the account to his own account, according to the findings of the police.

However, he failed as the bank described the transaction as suspicious and the officials tried to reach the academic by phone to inquire whether she was aware of the transac-tion attempt.

Later, the suspect sent a text message to the academic’s assistant, demanding that she cash the money to be transferred and bring it him with a courier, but the assistant sus-pected this text and reached Sözer’s sibling, Nihal Sözer. The sibling later went to her sister’s house and informed the police after the door was not opened.

In his interrogation, the suspect noted that he had been using methamphetamine for the last three months and claimed that the murder was “accidental” as a result of a discus-sion turning into a brawl.

The suspect said he did not know why he started a fire as he was under the influence of drugs. Three grams of methamphetamine was also found on the suspect during the search.

Meanwhile, several groups protested across Turkish cities, including the largest city of Istanbul, against the rising femicides and violence inflicted upon women in the country.

Hundreds of women gathered in Kadıköy and called the authorities to implement the Is-tanbul Convention, a Council of Europe treaty that obligates member states to combat violence against women.