Turkey debates death penalty for murders

MERSİN

‘We must discuss the death penalty forcrimes when people are murdered, such as in Aslan’s murder,’ Zeybekci says. DHA Photo.

The brutal murder of a young woman after an attempted rape in a minibus by the driver in southern Turkey has raised the debate on increasing the penalties of such crimes with ministers saying the reintroduction of the death penalty might come to the agenda.

Family and Social Policies Minister Ayşenur İslam said the reintroduction of the death penalty might come to the agenda. “I believe crimes against people might be punishable with the death penalty, [I say this] not as a minister but as a mother and a woman. We are considering bringing this to our agenda,” İslam told reporters after visiting the family of the murder victim.

The death penalty debate came to the agenda after the burned body of 20-year-old Özgecan Aslan was found in a riverbed in the Tarsus district of Mersin province.

Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci was the first to comment on the return of the death penalty. “We must discuss the death penalty for crimes when people are murdered, such as in Özgecan Aslan’s murder,” said Zeybekci.

Gaziantep Mayor Fatma Şahin proposed castration for sexual crimes.  Şahin, the former family minister, said Aslan’s murderer must be castrated to prevent similar crimes.