Turkish prosecutor seeks life sentence for woman on charges of killing husband

ORDU

A prosecutor on June 28 sought an aggravated life sentence for a woman charged with killing her husband in the Black Sea province of Ordu in May last year, Doğan News Agency has reported. 

Semra Özata, 60, previously made headlines after being recorded telling journalists on her way to the court that she killed her husband to stop him from killing her. 

“Record, my friend, record. Will it always be the men who kill? Let women kill this time. He was going to murder me, but I did it first. I am sorry for my child, for my daughter,” Özata said.

The murder reportedly took place after an argument between the woman and her 75-year-old husband Recep Özata, who lived in the Altınordu district of Ordu. Özata is accused of breaking a glass jug over her husband’s head and stabbing him 15 times with a knife. 

The woman and her 20-year-old daughter from her first marriage, who is accused of helping her mother with the murder, then called the police and surrendered themselves. A court later arrested both of them pending trial. 

On June 28 both mother and daughter appeared before the Ordu 2nd Heavy Penalty Court on charges of “deliberately murdering a close relative.” 

Semra Özata, who is in jail pending trial, told the court that her husband had been violent towards her and that her daughter was not guilty. She said that she committed the murder on her own and that if she had not killed her husband he would have killed her. 

Her daughter, meanwhile, rejected the charges and told the court that her mother had committed the murder on her own. 

The court referred the defendants to the Istanbul Institution of Forensic Medicine for a report regarding their mental health. It also deferred the next hearing to a later date in August.