Federal Court changes charges in murder case

In 1996, the almost four-year old tragic story of the father and his daughter finally came to a head. The Kurdish father, who fled with his family from Turkey to Switzerland in 1988, observed his daughter with a young man in 1992. He considered this to be an insult. With death threats, the father tried to coerce his daughter into upholding his beliefs in family honour. He finally decided to force his daughter to marry a cousin of hers in Turkey; she refused the marriage. On 19 June 1996, yet another fight ended in a blood bath.

In December 1999, the Supreme Court of canton Bern sentenced the father to a fourteen-year prison term and a fifteen-year ban from the country for premeditated murder. Now that appeals from both the father and his defence lawyer have convinced the court that he should only be sentenced on the slightly lesser charge of murder, the Federal Court has to re-sentence him.

(sda)