Murderer’s spouse included in high profile femicide case

The wife of the murderer of Pınar Gültekin, a 27-year-old university student who was killed in the Aegean province of Muğla last year, has been included in the high profile femicide case.

A new indictment was prepared against main suspect Cemal Metin Avcı's parents, Ayten and Selim Avcı, his divorced wife Eda Karagün, and his business partner Şükrü Gökhan Orhan, accusing them of trying to hide evidence at the scene following the murder.

Karagün had filed for divorce after the murder on the grounds that she did not want to carry the surname of her ex-spouse, whom she said was a murderer, any longer.

After persistent attempts by the Gültekin family's lawyer that went all the way to the Supreme Court, the chief prosecutor's office of the high court decided to prepare another indictment against others, including Karagün and Orhan.

Noting that there were contradictions in the statement of Karagün at the local court, the indictment demanded that the suspects be punished separately.

"From the beginning, we claimed that there were other perpetrators in the process. We resorted to all legal remedies and the trial expanded significantly with this indictment," said Rezan Epözdemir, the Gültekin family's lawyer.

Epözdemir said that their struggle will continue until justice is served.

The murder suspect already faces aggravated life imprisonment while prosecutors are likely to ask for up to five years in prison for the rest of the family members for helping Avcı cover up his tracks after the crime.

Gültekin had disappeared after leaving her home on July 16, 2020. With mounting evidence against him, Avcı had confessed that he had strangled her to death before burning her body and dumping it...