Wedding ends with groom dragged to death

ISTANBUL

Aziz Baş and Sevda Baş

A quarrel over tips in a wedding in Istanbul has ended with the groom being dragged to his death.

Aziz Baş, the 25-year-old groom, was going to a party with his newly-wed wife Sevda Baş and invitees on the evening of Aug. 31, following the official ceremony in Istanbul’s Bahçelievler neighborhood. In accordance with customs, uninvited local groups had been interrupting the convoy’s journey to the wedding venue to receive tips from the couple. The incident happened only 50-meters away from the venue when a tip-seeking group’s insistence turned into a fist-fight between the groom and his relatives. Aziz Baş died when his head was stuck in the window of a moving car that carried the group of troublemaking tip-seekers.

The only suspect, identified as E.A., was arrested by the Bakırköy Criminal Court of Peace on Sept. 2, Anadolu Agency reported. 

“We parked in front of the wedding car. Its driver [Aziz Baş’s cousin] came and started to punch me from the open window while cursing. I moved the car, but then the groom came and punched me. He fell down when I accidentally hit a parked minibus,” he reportedly said in his statement to a prosecutor.

He will be tried for premeditated murder.