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April 13, 2006

Germany: Muslim Jailed For "Honor Killing" Of Sister

We described last September the honor killing of Hatun Surucu (pictured), a Turkish-born 23 year old mother of a five-year old. Today, according to Reuters, Australia's Daily Telegraph and Expatica, Hatun's brother was jailed today by a court in Berlin. When he heard his sentence today, hhe laughed.

Hatun's younger brother, Ayhan Surucu, now aged 20, had shot her in a Berlin street. He had been aged 18 at the time. The shooting took place on February 7, 2005. Hatun had been waiting at a bus stop near her home in Tempelhof district when her brother walked up to her, and shot her three times in the head.

At her funeral, Hatun's Turkish/Kurdish parents, who came from Anatolia, draped her casket in verses from the Koran. They gave Hatun a Muslim burial, despite her choice to live as a secular German citizen.

Today, presiding judge Michael Degreif said that Hatun had been killed "because she lived her life as she saw fit", and had Western notions of sexuality. Ayhan Surucu was found guilty of murder, and was given a sentence of nine years and three months' imprisonment. Because he was a minor at the time of the killing, he could only have received a maximum sentence of 10 years under German law.

Two older brothers, 25-year old Alpaslan and 26-year old Mutlu, were acquitted. Prosecutors had suggested they had provided Ayhan with a gun, and had sought life sentences. It was not proved without a doubt that they had given him the murder weapon. Prosecutors have said that they will be papealing the decision made on the brothers, who cheered on hearing of their acquittal.

Ayhan Surucu told the court in September that he had shot his sister dead because he disapproved of her lifestyle and her morals. Hatun had walked out of a marriage she had been forced into, and was living as a single mother. She had declared that she had the right to live as she pleased, and to sleep with whosoever she wanted.

Ayhan said: "It was too much for me. I grabbed the pistol and pulled the trigger. I don't even understand what I did anymore."

In 1998, when only 15, Hatun had been forced to go to Turkey to marry a cousin. She left the cousin and returned to Berlin in May 1999, aged 17 and pregnant. She gave birth to a son. By the end of that year, she had left her parents' apartment and refused to wear the hijab or Muslim headscarf.

Shortly before her death, Hatun had tried to forge some sort of reconciliation with her family. She had completed her school education, despite raising a son on her own, and had enrolled in a college to begin an apprenticeship as an electrician.

The case of Hatun's killing provoked national outrage, made worse by the behaviour of boys at a nearby school, filled with children of immigrant families, who openly applauded the killing of Hatun, because she had lived "like a German". Their public demonstration against Ayhan's prosecution was widely covered by the media.

Judge Michael Degreif said that, even though the Surucu family lived for many years in the Berlin district of Kreuzberg, it "wasn't really living in Germany."

A key witness at the trial, Ayhan's girlfriend, had gone into hiding under a witness protection programme.

There have been several cases of "honor killings" in Germany recently, and these highlight a problem of people of immigrant cultures, who refuse to respect or integrate with the values of German society. Recently, we described the case of the school at Neukoelln, a suburb of Berlin, where Muslim pupils have refused to be taught or disciplined by female teachers. The situation of unruliness there has led to police being employed to check students for weapons.

There are about 2,5 million Turkish people living in Germany, out of a national population of 82 million.

The situation of honor killings and lack of integration by Muslim families has led Germany's legislature to attempt drastic measures. A law is currently being considered. This would make anyone trying to make someone partake in a forced marriage liable to a prison sentence of 10 years.

The UN Human Rights Commission says that every year, 5,000 women are killed in these so-called "honor" killings.

A report in der Spiegel stated that between June and September 2005, there had been six Muslim women living in Berlin murdered by their relatives in honor killings. One was Hatun. Of the others, two of them were stabbed to death in front of their young children, one was shot, one was strangled to death and a fifth was drowned.

The Turkish women's organization Papatya has documented 40 instances of honor killings in Germany since 1996. In one case from April 2004, a girl in Darmstadt had been clubbed to death with a hockey stick by her two brothers. They had found out that she had slept with a boyfriend.

In December 2003 in Tuebingen, a father strangled his 16-year old daughter and then cast her lifeless body into a lake, merely for having a boyfriend.

At the time of the article (September) there were six boys in Berlin's juvenile prison for honor killings.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at April 13, 2006 6:04 PM

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Posted by: Bridge at February 10, 2007 11:02 AM

Posted by: Bridge at February 10, 2007 11:03 AM

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