Public split over killing of man while woman beaten

ISTANBUL

Kadir Şeker was detained soon after the incident on Feb. 5 and arrested. (DHA Photo)

The incarceration of a young man who reportedly stabbed to death a man while trying to protect a woman being subjected to violence has stirred controversy.

Kadir Şeker, a 20-year-old prospective medical faculty student, was sitting at a park in the Central Anatolian province of Konya on Feb. 5 when he saw a woman screaming and being beaten by a man.

He approached the couple and urged the man, 32-year-old Özgür Duran, to stop abusing the woman.

They started scuffling and Duran dropped dead after being stabbed by a knife in his heart.

Şeker admitted that he was carrying a knife at the time of the incident.

“He clasped me by the throat. I tried to move back but he didn’t leave my throat. My lungs were aching, I couldn’t breathe. While I was backing away, I lost my footing. I fell down and the man fell down beside me. He didn’t fall on me as far as I remember. When he fell, I felt pain in my hand. When I stood up, I saw blood in my hand and on the knife,” Şeker said in his statement to the police.

The abused woman and two witnesses confirmed his statement, however, the woman said that Şeker had already taken out the knife from his pocket in the beginning of the quarrel.

Şeker was caught by police in a nearby flat and was ordered to be arrested by a court in Konya.

A campaign was initiated on the social media by his friends and some women’s rights organizations next day with a hashtag #kadiriçinadalet, meaning “justice for Kadir.”

“Kadir ran to the scene not to kill someone but to make the woman stay alive,” said Fidan Ataselim, a spokesperson for the women’s rights group Kadın Cinayetlerini Durduracağız Platformu (We Will Stop Femicides Platform), which says that at least 474 women were murdered by men in Turkey last year.

“If he hadn’t intervened, maybe the woman wouldn’t have been alive now,” she said, criticizing the laws to protect women not being implemented properly.

On the other hand, Duran’s family has vowed to follow the case and press on the court to punish Şeker.

“They have portrayed Kadir as a hero on social media. They would take my son from the grave and put him behind bars if they could do so,” said Cengiz Duran, the victim’s father.

“Why did Kadir come to the scene with a knife in his hand? Why stab it into his heart?” he asked, also saying that the best practice would have been to call the police.