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Cemal Metin Avcı, who murdered Pınar Gültekin, was sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment by the Court of Cassation. The Court of Cassation requested an unjust provocation reduction in the sentence.

Shocking Decision in the Pınar Gültekin Case: Court of Cassation Rejects ‘Monstrous’ Classification!

The aggravated life sentence given to Cemal Metin Avcı, who brutally murdered university student Pınar Gültekin in Muğla, was overturned by the Court of Cassation.

Rezan Epözdemir, the lawyer of the family, criticised the decision by saying ‘Cemal Metin Avcı may be released from prison after 7 years’.

The case against Cemal Metin Avcı and his brother Mertcan Avcı, who murdered university student Pınar Gültekin in Muğla in July 2020, was finalised in 2022. The local court in Muğla first sentenced Cemal Metin Avcı to aggravated life imprisonment and then reduced the sentence to 23 years by applying an unjust provocation discount. Mertcan Avcı and the other defendants were acquitted.

COURT REVERSED

Izmir Court of Appeal reversed this decision and sentenced Cemal Metin Avcı to aggravated life imprisonment and his brother Mertcan Avcı to 4 years in prison. When the case was appealed once again, this time the Court of Cassation overturned both verdicts.

The Court of Cassation ruled that Cemal Metin Avcı should be sentenced for intentional murder or murder by inflicting torture, not for premeditated murder and murder with cruel intent. It is requested to apply an unjust provocation reduction.

Two members of the 5-member committee issued a dissenting opinion on the verdict.

RESPONSE BY LAWYER EPÖZDEMİR

Dr. Rezan Epözdemir, the lawyer of the Gültekin family, reacted to the verdict and said the following:

‘’The verdict was reversed in favour of the defendant on the grounds that the defendant Cemal Metin Avcı did not kill Pınar Gültekin, the daughter of our clients, with cruel intent and premeditation, and that an unjust provocation discount should be applied to him at the same time. We believe that this decision of the Court of Cassation, which was taken by a majority of votes, is clearly a legal oddity. The decision that the sentence should be reduced by applying unjust provocation by attributing sanctity to the defence of unjust provocation, which has changed three times, contradicts itself, is not supported by the evidence in the file, memorised and fictionalised, is clearly devoid of legal basis and groundless. Again, according to the forensic medicine institution report in the file, the finding that Pınar Gültekin, whose body was burnt while she was still alive, poured concrete over her and thrown into the river, was not killed with a cruel intent is unbelievable.

If the verdict is finalised as it is, the defendant Cemal Metin Avcı will be sentenced to 12 to 18 years in prison. If he is sentenced to 12 years imprisonment as a final penalty, he will be imprisoned for 7 years after the implementation of conditional release and probation institutions, and if he is sentenced to 18 years imprisonment from the upper limit, he will be imprisoned for 11 years after the implementation of conditional release and probation institutions.’

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WHAT HAPPENED?

Pınar Gültekin (27), a student of Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University, Department of Economics, left her apartment where she lived alone in Akyaka neighbourhood on 16 July 2020 and was not heard from again after talking to her sister by phone on the same day. In the investigation initiated after her family reported her missing to Akyaka Gendarmerie Command, a list of people who knew Gültekin was compiled, and the statements of eyewitnesses were consulted by examining the security camera records in the region.

Cemal Metin Avcı, the ex-boyfriend of the young woman, who was taken into custody on suspicion, confessed that he had killed Gültekin, whom he had been friends for a while and then broke up with her, in his vineyard house, burned her body and threw it in a barrel into the forest area in Gülağzı locality and was arrested.

Cemal Metin Avcı's brother Mertcan Avcı was also detained by gendarmerie teams after his phone signals were detected in the same time period with his brother at and near the scene of the incident and he was arrested on charges of ‘obscuring evidence’. During the trial, it was decided that Mertcan Avcı would be on trial without arrest.

In the thirteenth hearing of the case related to the murder of Gültekin, the defendant Cemal Metin Avcı was sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment and his sentence was reduced to 23 years with the reduction of unjust provocation. The court acquitted Mertcan Avcı and the other defendants.

Muğla Chief Public Prosecutor's Office appealed the 23-year prison sentence given to Cemal Metin Avcı and the acquittal decision for his brother Mertcan Avcı. The 4th Criminal Chamber of Izmir Regional Court of Appeals decided to sentence Cemal Metin Avcı to aggravated life imprisonment and his brother to 4 years in prison during the appeal process.

Source: Pınar Gültekin cinayeti davasında yeni gelişme: Yargıtay 'canavarca değil' dedi!