Turkish man sentenced to 25 years in prison for killing wife in France

Duvar English

A French court has sentenced a Turkish man to 25 years in prison for stabbing his wife to death on the street, AFP reported on June 21. The assassination reportedly took place in 2017 and the couple were going through a divorce.

The39-year-old Eyüp Kantar has also been convicted of “attempting tomurder” his wife Hülya Kantar's new partner.

Infull view of witnesses, Kantar was said to have seized Hülya Kantarby the hair and stabbed her 27 times by a knife, of which “sevenstrokes were fatal.”

Kantar said in his defense that he committed the murder “out of love.”

Rights organizations say that violence against women continues to be a challenge in Turkey and draw attention to law implementation failures by police, prosecutors and judges.

In many cases, judges rule that the perpetrator has displayed "good behavior" during court trials -- for example the man comes to court wearing a suit and tie -- and hands down a reduction in his sentence.

Moreover, with the recent amnesty law, numerous domestic violence offenders have enjoyed sentence reductions. Many violent offenders have been set free, while the remaining ones can transfer to open prisons and take permission to temporarily leave and interact with society.

The Istanbul Convention is the basic mechanism of combating male violence but the government is accused of not implementing the agreement appropriately.

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