"Unjust Provocation" no Excuse for Honour Killing

The Kartal (Istanbul) 2^nd High Criminal Court adjudicated one more "honour killing" in the hearing on Tuesday (17 November). Satı Korkmak was the wife of filling station attendant Hasan Korkmak and mother of 2 sons at the age of 9 and 14 years. They lived in a house belonging to the Korkmak family, the wife staying in a different flat together with her relatives. After some rumours had emerged about Satı Korkamaz, suggesting that she had a relationship with her brother in law, her husband got the family together to discuss the matter. The family did not want to harm Satı Korkmak's reputation and decided that "there was no such relationship". Upon this family verdict, Hasan Korkmak chose to act on his own behalf and strangled his wife with a television cable on 14 February 2009.

Call for help

For the first time, the family of a victim officially asked for help of an organization. Satı's brother Ahmet Karatay addressed the "Purple Roof" ('Mor Çatı') women's shelter in a letter, urging them "Don't leave us alone". He described that his only sister had been very close to the family. Karatay said that his sister stopped working to take care of her children who were ill at the time and that everybody could testify that she did not cheat on her husband. Karatay said these words in the context of women murders as an example to defend the right to life.

"First of all, nobody must be deprived to the right to life regardless of any reason; and this kind of felonious murder must not be committed. A murderer committing such a crime must be punished to stay away from society as long as possible. To prevent a further exposure of this violence against women, those murderers should not be done a favour by mitigation of punishment for insignificant reasons" Karatay wrote in his letter. The Karatay family expressed that their grief about the possibility of mitigation due to "provocation" was even larger than their grief about the defamation of their daughter.

First hearing

In the first hearing of the case on 10 August this year, witnesses from the family of Hasan Korkmak stated that nobody actually said that Satı Korkmak had a relationship with her brother in law. The husband explained that his wife had mentioned this only to him. Apparently, Hasan Korkmak lost control after the family meeting when his wife supposedly insulted him and strangled her with the television cable. He claimed to regret what he had done. However, the fact that he brought his children out of the house on the day of the murder can account as evidence that he planned the killing.

Second session

In the latest hearing, Korkmak's lawyers repeated allegations of adultery resulting from the rumours about Satı Korkmak. Referring to the "Turkish family structure" and "traditional values", the joint attorneys asked, "If we do not apply unjust provocation to a case like this, where else are we going to apply it?" Despite the defence of this familiar "moral", the prosecutor did not mention mitigation of punishment because of "unjust provocation" in his final speech. The judge decreed for applying mitigation for "good conduct" and "regret" only, so he converted the sentence of "aggravated life imprisonment" into "lifelong imprisonment".

Feminists had monitored the case and gathered together with the Karatay family in front of the court house prior to the hearing and protested against women killings and mitigation for "unjust provocation". (YC/VK)