Authorities in Turkey have ordered the exhumation of the grave of a convicted murderer, who brutally killed his girlfriend in 2009 and was found dead in his cell 10 years ago after allegedly committing suicide, in the face of growing public opinion in Turkey that his death was faked and that the perpetrator escaped justice.
According to numerous Turkish media reports published in recent hours, the public prosecutor’s office has reportedly ordered the opening of Cem Garipoğlu’s grave in order to carry out DNA tests on the remains and confirm the identity of the body. Garipoğlu was sentenced at the end of 2011 for the 2009 murder of his girlfriend, Münevver Karabulut, who was 17 years old at the time and whose body was found in a rubbish bag in a dumpster with her head decapitated.
Police suspected her boyfriend from the beginning as he was the last person with whom the victim had been in contact; after being on the run from justice for 6 months, Garipoğlu turned himself in to the police confessing that he had killed the young woman out of jealousy. After the trial – which aroused great excitement in Turkey because the killer came from a wealthy family that owned several businesses – Garipoğlu was sentenced to 24 years in prison; the court also convicted his uncle and mother as accomplices in helping him escape from the police and hiding evidence of the crime.
3 years after his conviction, Garipoğlu was found dead in his single cell, apparently hanged. However, during all these years, there have been persistent voices among the public who believe that the murderer did not take his own life, but that his death was faked with the help of his influential family in order to escape from the country and avoid his prison sentence. One of the most persistent of these voices has been that of Süreyya Karabulut, the murdered girl’s father, who on several previous occasions had unsuccessfully called for Garipoğlu’s body to be exhumed to verify his identity.
Now, the Silivri (Istanbul) Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office has authorised the opening of the grave to proceed with the exhumation of the killer’s remains and carry out DNA testing, in order to determine the identity of the body buried in the grave and put an end to any speculation about the crime. ‘This old enigma, which has been the subject of incessant research in universities, think tanks, seminars and the media, will finally be put to rest and the questions of the public will be answered,’ said Rezan Epözdemir, the lawyer of the victim’s family.
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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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