‘Çilem Doğan punished because she didn’t die,’ says lawyer Aracı

* Photo: Social media

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The 1st Penal Chamber of the Court of Cassation has upheld the 15-year prison sentence previously given to Çilem Doğan, who killed her husband Hasan Karabulut on July 8, 2015. Doğan had been subjected to systematic violence and forced sex work by her husband.

After killing Hasan Karabulut with his weapon in their bedroom in eastern Mediterranean province of Adana, Çilem Doğan turned herself in to the police. Facing an aggravated life sentence at the Adana 10th High Criminal Court, Doğan was sentenced to 15 years in prison with sentence reductions on the grounds of "unjust provocation and good conduct."

Doğan's lawyer applied to the 10th High Criminal Court and requested her release on probation. The court board ruled on June 20, 2016 that Çilem Doğan should be released with a bail of 50 thousand lira.

In an announcement yesterday (November 4), the Court of Cassation stated that the 15-year prison sentence of Doğan has been upheld, which means that Çilem Doğan will be sent to prison again.

Sevil Aracı, one of her attorneys, has announced the verdict on her social media account and said: "With this verdict, Çilem Doğan has become one of the women who are punished because they didn't die."

Several women as well as women's rights groups and women's organizations of political parties have denounced the verdict on social media.

What happened?

Çilem Doğan was subjected to male violence starting from the first month of her 2.5-year marriage. Doğan reported her husband to the police several times and had nine protection orders issued. Six different lawsuits were filed against Hasan Karabulut, the husband, at criminal judgeships of first instance on charges of "threat" against his spouse and "wounding" her.

Çilen Doğan told the court board that her husband formed a check gang with his relatives, she reported her husband to the police and the police wanted to be informed about all actions of her husband.

On July 8, 2015, Doğan killed her husband Hasan Karabulut, who inflicted violence on her and forced her to do sex work, with his weapon in their bedroom. Afterwards, she turned herself in to the police.

Taken by the police, Çilem Doğan was heard to be saying, "Is it always women who are supposed to die" and she was wearing a shirt with the caption in English: "Dear Past: That for all the lessons. Dear Future: I am ready". At the hearings afterwards, it was indicated that Doğan was not wearing the shirt on the day of the incident and her mother, with a police officer, took this shirt coincidentally after Doğan had turned herself in.

Çilem Doğan's lawyers presented a report on "battered woman defense" to the court at the hearings and stated that even if nothing had happened on the day of the incident, the violence that she had been subjected to should be considered within the scope of self-defense.

At the hearing on May 6, 2016, Çilem Doğan's lawyers demanded acquittal on the grounds of self-defense. The Adana Public Prosecutor, however, demanded 18 to 24 years in prison on the charge of "wilful killing under grave and unjust provocation". 

In his final opinion, the prosecutor demanded that the act be not considered self-defense since Çilem Doğan "had not taken shelter in her family's place, she did not benefit from measures such as changing her identity, plastic surgery and the like, she kept on living in the same house with her husband and she had withdrawn some of her criminal complaints."

The Adana 10th High Criminal Court fist gave an aggravated life sentence to Çilem Doğan on charge of "wilful killing of the spouse"; the court then reduced this sentence to 15 years in prison one the grounds of "unjust provocation and good conduct." (EMK/SD)