Thousands of women took today to the streets in Turkey in cities like Ankara and Istanbul to protest against the brutal murder of a woman and the impunity of the killers, after the body of a woman, dismembered and with her head severed, was found this weekend in a rubbish bin in the Şişli district of central Istanbul.
The body was found at around 20:00 on Saturday in Kuyulubağ Street, in the Kurtuluş neighbourhood, wrapped in a sheet. It was a paper collector identified by the initials O.Ç. who alerted the police after finding the body inside the container; authorities later identified the victim as Durdona Khokimova, 36, a citizen of Uzbekistan, Turkish-Armenian daily Agos reported.
After reviewing more than eight hours of CCTV footage, police investigators identified three suspects, two of whom are Uzbek nationals. In an investigation coordinated with the intelligence agency, it was determined that the crime was allegedly committed by an Uzbek national, D.A.U.T., 31, who is said to have been in a relationship with Khokimova, and was assisted in disposing of the body by another Uzbek national, G.A.K., 29.
Both were arrested at Istanbul Airport when they tried to flee the country on a flight to Georgia. A third suspect, a 58-year-old Turkish national identified as E.K., was later arrested. In his statement to the police, D.A.U.T. confessed to the murder and claimed that he committed it after an argument with the victim, with whom he was in a romantic relationship.
In his confession, the alleged killer added that his friend G.A.K. helped him carry the body, hidden in a suitcase, in a taxi to Şişli. CCTV footage from the area shows the suspects leaving a house with several heavy suitcases of different sizes and walking down the street; in one of the recordings, they are seen throwing a bag into a container and quickly walking away with another suitcase.
Women’s organisations denounce the “impunity” of the killers
“This event is a consequence of the policies of impunity, the disregard for feminicides and the failure of the judicial system. The perpetrators are so convinced that they will not be punished that they dare to throw the body of the woman they murdered in a container, in the middle of the city centre and in full view of everyone”, denounced in a statement the Stop Femicides Platform, which blamed the AKP government for what it described as “misogynist policies and impunity”.
Rallies against the brutal murder of Durdona Khokimova began at around 4 pm in Ankara and Istanbul, with thousands of women lining the streets chanting slogans against gender-based violence and calling for an end to violence against women. The organisers lamented in a statement that “the aggressors believe that they will get reduced sentences and that they will be able to leave after serving a short sentence”, while also denouncing that many migrant women are afraid to go to the police to report situations of abuse for fear of deportation.
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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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