A 15-year-old girl who was savagely beaten before plunging to her death from a clifftop was the victim of a cruel plot by four friends, a court has heard.
Victim Elif Cakal thought she was going for a drive with two of her friends and two boys when they stopped near a notoriously dangerous rockface.
Instead, one friend had asked one of the boys to film her beating unsuspecting Elif; prosecutors told the Istanbul 18th Heavy Penal Court on 18th September.
Moments later, the Turkish court heard how Elif plunged over the cliff edge, falling to her death.
The four friends had originally told police that Elif had been drinking and jumped off the cliff in June 2021.
All four were initially freed until the disturbing phone video footage later emerged showing the brutal attack on Elif, which the court heard led directly to her death.
Prosecutors say all four accused are guilty of the intentional killing of a child, deprivation of liberty and supplying health-endangering substances.
They have demanded up to 40 years behind bars for the two boys, now aged over 18 and named as Ufuk Boku and Gyrkan Kalmaz.
And, they say, the two girls named only as Tuana Y., Senem T., both under 18, should both be jailed for 22 years.
The shocking video shows Semen T. apparently conspiring with one of the boys to record the beating on his phone.
In the footage, Elif is seen being punched, slapped and kicked as she begs for the two girls to stop.
Elif’s mother, Hacer Cakal, later claimed that the girls had pushed her daughter off the cliff and that her daughter had received death threats before her fall.
Prosecutors went on to accuse the female defendants of purposely taking Elif to a dangerous location while knowing she had been drinking.
Forensic experts said it could not be medically established whether she fell “while being beaten or as a result of the effects of the beatings.”
After the hearing, Elif’s mother, Hacer, said: “They made it look like suicide. They made the child experience hell there. What kind of humanity is this?
“These people cannot be human. How did these families raise them so barbaric? I want the families to be punished too.
“The families are involved too; they came to our door and threatened us.”
