Rare decision in Turkey: Free woman who killed her tormented husband

A rare decision welcomed by organizations fighting against them gynecology received a court in Turkey.

On Monday night, he demanded the release of a woman who killed her violent husband, believing that he was in legal defense.

Melek Ipek, 31, was arrested in January after pshot dead her husband, who had tied her up and beaten her for hours, threatening to kill her and their two children.

When the photos were taken of her face, swollen and full of bruises, proof of the violence she had suffered, they shocked Turkey.

Ipek had stated at her trial that her husband had abused both her and their two daughters for years.

Taking into account the testimonies of witnesses, and especially the children of Ipek who had seen the scenes of violence, the Antalya court ruled that the woman was in “self-defense” to protect “her physical and sexual integrity”.

The prosecutor had asked for her to be sentenced to six years in prison.

“It is amazing. I have no words. “But I never wanted that to happen.” Ipek said she was sorry she had to kill her husband to protect herself.

“This decision allows the whole country to breathe a sigh of relief,” said Ahmed Onaran, his lawyer, as reported by Agence France-Presse and relayed by the Athens News Agency.

Hugging her two daughters, ages 7 and 9, after months in prison, Ipek said the first thing she wanted to do was “sleep with my kids in my arms.”

Turkish courts rarely consider women who have committed a crime to protect themselves from violence to be in legal defense.

Women’s rights activists welcomed the court ruling, which came a month after Ankara’s controversial decision to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention on Violence against Women.

THE domestic violence and female homicides in Turkey remain an endemic problem. Last year, 300 women were murdered, according to We Will Stop Femicide.