 German federal court on Tuesday ordered a retrial for two brothers acquitted of fatally shooting their sister in what prosecutors have described as an ''honor killing'' meant to punish the Turkish-German woman for her Western lifestyle.
| Gee, we haven't heard that one before. |
A Berlin court last year acquitted the two _ Mutlu Surucu and Alpaslan Surucu, both in their mid-20s _ of murder, citing lack of sufficient evidence of their involvement in the 2005 killing of Hatan Surucu, 23. However, the court convicted her youngest brother _ Ayhan Surucu, who was 18 at the time of the crime _ as a juvenile and sentenced him to nine years and three months for the murder.
| He'll be out when he's 21. |
The case outraged Germans and raise questions about similar instances of forced marriages and abuses of young Turkish-German women seeking a Western lifestyles. It also prompted calls for better integration of the nation's roughly 2.7 million Turks, many of them second- and third-generation immigrants.| And rob them of their culture? Heaven forfend! |
| Boy howdy that integration thing is done so well by our Y'urp-peon betters. |
While Ayhan's conviction is unaffected by Tuesday's ruling, the Federal Court of Justice granted prosecutors' plea to overturn the two acquittals and ordered a retrial in Berlin for the elder brothers, who have denied involvement in the murder.
The federal court faulted the Berlin judges for failing to evaluate adequately evidence given during the trial by a friend of the youngest brother.
Hatun Surucu, a 23-year-old divorced mother, was killed by three shots to her head in February 2005 on a Berlin street near her home. Hatan Surucu, a German citizen, was born and raised in Berlin. In 1998, she was forced to return to Turkey to marry a cousin. A year later, she gave birth to a son in Berlin and refused to return with her husband to Turkey, prosecutors said.
She and her son then moved out of her parents' home against their will and continued her studies, entering an apprenticeship as an electrician, prosecutors said.
| Sounds like she was trying to integrate. Maybe her family wasn't so keen on integration? Something the Euros might want to look into. |
Among her brothers, Mutlu Surucu also is a nominal German citizen; Ayhan and Alpaslan are Turkish citizens. According to their attorneys, both Mutlu and Alpaslan are in Turkey.
Since they have a clear idea of the decades years months weeks they might spend in a German resort hotel prison if they return. |
It was not immediately clear if the brothers would attend the trial, although Germany could ask for Mutlu's extradition.
Might ask the new Turkish President Gul Dukat to help out on this one; see if he really means what he says. |
Prosecutors argued at the start of the Berlin trial that Surucu's brothers lured her to a bus stop with the intent of killing her because they were ashamed of her Western lifestyle.
| Yup, brazen hussy, studying, working, making money, looking after herself, fitting into an infidel society, obviously had to be killed ... |
During the proceedings, Ayhan Surucu admitted to the murder, saying he regretted the act but insisting his two older brothers were not involved.
There was no immediate word on a date for the retrial.
| Don't let Carla del Ponte hear about that. |
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