The final verdict on the trial for the murder of eight-year-old Narin Güran, who disappeared at the end of August and whose body, after an intense search that aroused the attention of the whole of Turkey, was finally found hidden in a river on 8 September, was announced on 28 December, in a trial in which all public attention was focused on the four main defendants: the girl’s mother, her older brother, her uncle, and a neighbour of the village who was responsible for hiding her body.
It should be recalled that the prosecution had asked for Narin’s mother, Yüksel Güran, and the girl’s older brother, Enes Güran, to be sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole on the charge of ‘deliberately participating in the murder of a minor’; The prosecutor also asked for the child’s uncle, Salim Güran, and a resident of the village of Tavşantepe and Salim’s employee, Nevzat Bahtiyar, to be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole as perpetrators of the crime. Several other members of the Güran family were accused of concealing evidence and hindering the investigation.
Narin disappeared on 21 August in Diyarbakır province after a camera last recorded her walking with some friends after leaving a course. After an exhaustive search that kept the attention of the whole of Turkey and involved thousands of people, her body was found hidden in a sack and among stones in a river near the village, apparently with signs of having been strangled, as revealed by the autopsy.
DNA traces found in a car driven by her uncle Salim, and the fact that he, along with her mother and brother, deleted all messages and calls from their mobile phones after her disappearance, were some of the evidence that led to their arrest as prime suspects. Bahtiyar later confessed to having been responsible for hiding the girl’s body in the river, according to him because of threats from Salim, the girl’s uncle, who investigators believe was the perpetrator of the murder.
Judge announces the sentence for the heinous crime
The trial started in early November but days later the court decided to postpone it until 26 December. Finally, after hearing all the testimonies and examining the evidence obtained in the investigation, the Diyarbakır Criminal Court No. 8 announced the sentence today at 21:00 local time (19:00 CET). In it, as reported by Turkish newspapers such as Sabah, the judge sentenced Narin’s mother (Yüksel) and his brother Enes (18 years old) to life imprisonment without parole as collaborators in the crime.
As for Salim, the girl’s uncle and brother of Narin’s father Arif, the court also sentenced him to life imprisonment without parole, stating that he committed the murder in cooperation with Yüksel and Enes. As for his alleged accomplice, Nevzat Bahtiyar, the court reduces his sentence to only 4 years and 6 months imprisonment, considering that his participation in the crime was limited to hiding the lifeless body of the girl, without direct involvement in her death.
In her final plea to the court, Narin’s mother, Yüksel, insisted on her innocence, assuring that ‘Narin did not come home that night… She went to the mosque and I never saw her again’, and again pointed to Nevzat (Bahtiyar) as the sole perpetrator of the murder, exonerating her son Enes and Salim, with whom she is suspected of having an extramarital affair, unknown to Arif, her husband.
Enes, who was arrested at the beginning of the investigation because of teeth marks on his arm that were suspected to belong to Narin, reiterated his version that the bites on his arm were self-inflicted and, once again, also pointed to Bahtiyar as the sole culprit. For his part, Salim Güran, again pointing to Bahtiyar as the sole perpetrator of the crime, tried to exonerate himself because of the DNA evidence that places him as the main defendant: ‘I am here because of the DNA. I have already said that it is normal that Narin’s DNA was found in my car, because it is a vehicle we share. I was told that there was vomit and blood (from the girl), but that is not possible.’
Despite the announcement of the verdict for the horrific murder of little Narin Güran, a crime that has shocked the whole country, and while the sentence – pending full details – seems to confirm uncle Salim as the main killer and the girl’s mother and brother as collaborators in the crime, there is one question that remains unanswered and about which, for now, we only know hypothetical scenarios: why was Narin murdered?
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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