A man could face life in prison for killing his girlfriend before telling emergency medics and cops she had committed suicide.
Mikail Kurulay called an ambulance after an argument with his girlfriend Sibel Kayman escalated in Izmit, Koaceli Province, northwestern Turkey.
He told emergency service staff she had killed herself and screamed, “Let my Sibel live!” as medics desperately tried to save the young woman’s life, say local media.
Kurulay claimed that the beautiful 25-year-old, who died in a hospital the same day, had killed herself.
But investigators from the Kocaeli Provincial Police Department’s Homicide Office quickly determined he was lying and put him in custody over the incident which occurred on 4th December.
During their investigation, the Homicide Office teams ascertained that Kurulay was the one who fired the gun, according to local media.
The suspect denied committing the crime both in the police station and in the court.
The motive for the murder remains unknown.
Prosecutors have not yet disclosed which charges Kurulay is facing.
He remains in preventive custody as the investigations continue.
Femicide is a growing problem in Turkey, particularly after the country officially quit the Istanbul Convention, which aims at preventing violence against women, in July 2021.
According to data from the ‘Monument Counter’, which is “a digital memorial for women killed by violence” and is updated daily, 393 women were killed by men in 2022, while 369 femicides have taken place in Turkey so far this year.
