'Honour killing' brother jailed

Ayhan Surucu had confessed to shooting his sister Hatun Surucu, 23, at a bus stop in a Berlin suburb last year.

Two other brothers were cleared of charges of conspiring to murder her.

Prosecutors said the brothers felt dishonoured by their sister, who lived on her own with her son after leaving a cousin she had been forced to marry.

The death of the 23-year-old shocked Germany and led to street protests by Turkish women.

The Berlin court's presiding judge Michael Degreif said Hatun Surucu was killed "because she lived her life as she saw fit" and had adopted Western ideas of sexual equality, the AFP news agency reports.

"It was too much for me. I grabbed the pistol and pulled the trigger"
Ayhan Surucu

Her killer, Ayhan Surucu, had told the court he shot his sister because he disapproved of her lifestyle and her morals, but added that he regretted his actions.

He said she infuriated him by saying that she had the right to live as she pleased and to sleep with whom she wanted.

"It was too much for me. I grabbed the pistol and pulled the trigger," he told the court in September. "I don't even understand what I did anymore."

Protests

Hatun Surucu was the sixth victim of honour killings among Berlin's 200,000-strong Turkish community in as many months. The German police listed 45 cases between 1996 and 2004 - with 13 in Berlin.

She had been married to her cousin eight years before in an arranged marriage, but had then run away - taking her five-year-old son with her.

The killing led to a wide debate in Germany about honour killings.

Muslim leaders in Berlin were at pains to stress that there was no basis for honour killings in the Koran. But they were also criticised for not making a clear condemnation of them.

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Amnesty International
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