Murder victims’ remains finally return to Turkey after 937-day wait in Belgium

AFYONKARAHİSAR - Anatolia News Agency

AA Photo

The Aygün brothers’ remains finally reached their hometown of Eskişehir after a 937-day holdup in a Belgian morgue, Anatolia news agency reported.

The Aygün family has been waiting for the bodies for over two years due to the refusal of Belgium’s Kortrijk district prosecutor to release them, citing the ongoing murder case that could have been hampered if the bodies were transferred to Turkey. The court, however, soon decided that the bodies were no longer needed in the case, which was finalized by a confession and conviction, and allowed the Aygün family to take their sons back to Turkey.

The remains of Uğur and Süleyman Aygün, aged 32 and 33 respectively, were finally brought to Turkey once they were released by the court, nearly three years after the murder that took their lives.

The wait was not only emotionally damaging for the family, but also forced the Aygüns into severe debt – rounding up to 130,000 euros – for storing the bodies in the morgue.

The bodies will be buried in the village cemetery, the report said.

The Aygün family is reportedly now in the process of moving back to Turkey, but is determined to fight the legal battle.

“I served [Belgium] for forty years,” their father, Vahit Aygün, told Anatolia news agency. “I was never involved in any trouble, never crossed the doorway of a police station. We are citizens here, but they are telling us to leave by doing all this. Once the funeral work is done I will return to Turkey. I would not look back to Belgium even if the ground was made of go