Wife of Özgecan Aslan’s killer demands ‘heaviest sentence’ for husband

ISTANBUL

DHA Photo

The wife of the man who confessed to the murder that has shook Turkey over the past days has demanded the “heaviest sentence” for him.

“God damn him. I want him to be given the heaviest sentence,” Neslihan Altındöken told the Doğan News Agency on Feb. 17.

Ahmet Suphi Altındöken, 26, confessed to killing Özgecan Aslan, a 20-year-old university student from the southern Turkish province of Mersin on Feb. 11. Altındöken and two of his accomplices were arrested after Aslan’s burned body was found in a river bed.

“I really pity the family of Özgecan, but not my husband. I share their pain,” Neslihan Altındöken said, adding that she had married the suspect five years ago and had to take refuge in her relatives’ home with their three-year-old son after the murder.

“We were in love when we married, but he quickly turned life into hell for me. God damn the day of our wedding,” she added.

“He has always resorted to violence. I had no strength left to resist,” she said, adding that she filed for divorce a few months ago but had to withdraw the case after he threatened to kill both her and their son.

Following the murder, Ahmet Suphi Altındöken said in his testimony that his wife had noticed the bruises on his face, inflicted by Özgecan Aslan as she resisted rape.

“I told my wife that I had a fight [with a man],” he reportedly told the prosecutor.

His wife confirmed this to Doğan News Agency, adding that he had quickly left home after changing clothes following the incident.

According to his testimony, Altındöken burned Özgecan’s body in a river bed, after cutting off her hands with the help of his father and a friend.