“HONOR KILLING PLAN” IS FREEDOM OF THOUGHT IN “SECULAR” TURKEY
Court ruling: Honor killing plan is ‘freedom of thought’
A Diyarbakır court has dropped the charges against eight people from a family who were planning to kill a girl in the name of honor, ruling that they cannot be sentenced for thoughts that did not turn into action.
According to the Sabah daily, the men of the family had planned to call the girl in question, Kadriye, who ran away with her boyfriend, telling her that they had forgiven her. Then they were going to have her 14-year-old brother kill her. The plan was uncovered when Kadriye’s mother, 55-year-old Fatma Ç., notified a gendarme in a village in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır about the plan.
Criminal charges were brought against the eight men — two uncles, three brothers and three other family members — for planning to murder Kadriye in the name of honor. The mother was the plaintiff, while Kadriye was listed as the victim in the indictment prepared by a public prosecutor. In the trial, the three brothers said they did not plot to kill their sister, and the mother recanted her statement. “I asked for help to find my daughter, but I didn’t file a complaint about a plan to kill her,†she said during the trial. While noting that Kadriye could not be found despite all efforts and her testimony could not be taken, the court dropped the charges against the suspects, stating that “even though the suspects decided to kill Kadriye in the name of honor, the decision was only in the thought phase. No one can be charged with a crime for thoughts that do not turn into actions.â€
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