• Germany edition
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Father and brother jailed for 'honour killing'

Published: 29 Dec 09 15:35 CET
Updated: 30 Dec 09 08:11 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20091229-24241.html

A 50-year-old Turkish man was jailed for life in Germany on Tuesday over the brutal "honour killing" of his 20-year-old daughter, a murder carried out together with the victim's twin brother.

Gülsüm Semin's brother was sentenced to nine and a half years behind bars, while a 32-year-old Russian accomplice was given seven and a half years by the court in Kleve, western Germany, a spokeswoman said.

On March 2 the young woman, who had recently had an abortion, was lured to a patch of wasteland where her brother and the accomplice strangled her with a cord and beat her in the face with a club and a tree branch, the court found.

The woman had been in conflict for some time with her family because she had chosen to adopt a "Western" lifestyle that was incompatible with the traditional Muslim way of life as seen by her father, police said.

She moved in with an Albanian man but then moved back to her family in late 2008, when she refused an arranged marriage with a relative. The same day as the murder, the brother had discovered that her sister had had an abortion.

The father, named in media reports as Yusuf Semin, was found by the court to have been the main instigator and convicted of murder. Arrested on April 1, the brother confessed but the father denied any involvement.

Newspapers named the accomplice as Miro M.

AFP (news@thelocal.de)

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16:35 December 29, 2009 by DoubleDTown
I think Germany needs to increase its sentences for murder. 7.5 years? 9.5 years?
17:44 December 29, 2009 by Dashcroft
DoubleDTown: The maximum prison sentence for youth offenders in Germany is 10 years. The accomplice got 7.5 years for aiding and abetting and the father is to serve a life sentence, which means at least 15 years. On average, life prisoners serve 22 years, according to official statistics. Sounds pretty fair to me, actually.
19:12 December 29, 2009 by MJTinNOLA
Fair for who exactly Daschcroft? Fair to the young woman (only 20 years old) who was brutally murdered by her own family for some misguided notion of family honor? Fair to the many other women who are so forced into submission because they might also be murdered like this? Fair to other victioms and families of this most evil of crimes, who expect justice? I will tell you what is NOT fair: letting such monsters off so lightly. I guess murder is just not that big a deal in Germany. And how do YOU defend these monsters? I gues murder is not that big a deal to you either. After all, she was just another Turk. There are many more where she came from. It does not matter what "other" criminals have to serve, anyone, and I mean anyone, who takes another life on purpose and in such a monsterous way, needs to be locked up in the darkest, most horrific pit on Earth and left to suffer every moment they live for such a horrific deed. So when you can tell me who this sentence is fair to, please let us know.
23:40 December 29, 2009 by wxman
Sharia or not? Your call, Germany.
01:20 December 30, 2009 by Fredfeldman
This is awful and happens on a fairly regular basis here in Germany apparently. The country wanted to import cheap labor and got this kind of monsterous, prehistoric mentality in the bargain. Was it worth it?
02:05 December 30, 2009 by Jibzy
You can always trust conservative media and ignorant people to glorify one incident and get a country/nation/tribe/group of people declared as Terrorists or Prehistoric Mentalities or Monsters or what not.

This is one family who was/is extremely ignorant. There are many more like these but you're making a fools out of yourselves if you brand the entire race or nation as monsters and taliban. Tell me which group of people in the universe do not have SAMPLES like this family?
03:57 December 30, 2009 by CalBill
I think this story demonstrates two things. 1.) More mosques are not needed in Germany or any other country in Europe and 2.) if I ever need to brutally murder anyone, I'll do it in Germany since (based on the murder's sentences) they don't take this type of crime seriously.
04:22 December 30, 2009 by Wabit
This honour Killing is sickening!!! It does not matter if the Killers get 10 years or 100 years. The medievil Mentallity will still be there!!! I am not saying that we are better than thses people are? Nor am I saying that they are better than us!

But what I am really trying to say is that we are different and I thank God for that small mercy!!!!!

Oh how it makes my blood boil.
11:35 December 30, 2009 by Fredfeldman
Jibzy, when was the last time a german family was accused of killing their daughter to protect their honor? These folks and a lot more like them pollute our culture and values. Pity the poor germans who invited them in to take advantage of their cheap labor as now their society is being ravaged from within. Its a lesson in price you pay when money is the only thing that matters. Ditto the english and french.
12:28 December 30, 2009 by Joshontour
Dashcroft: read the story, her brother is her twin. That means he would also have been 20 years old, and that's not a youth. On top of that, it was the brother and accomplice that actually killed the girl; how is it then that they get less of a sentence than the dad?

This mindset is ridiculous. I don't know if these girls think it can't happen in their family, but they need to realize it can. There are organizations in Germany especially for (muslim) women in this situation, but these organizations need to do a better job of advertising and making it known that they are there.
15:17 December 30, 2009 by Jibzy
@Fredfeldmann

Just 300 hundred years ago, the 'Germans' used to burn witches at public places. It was a time of ignorance. These people are 300 years behind you people. That does not mean you should be arrogant and ignorant ..it shud MAKE YOU BLOOD BOIL. I'm sorry we foreigners POLLUTE your culture and VALUES.
04:04 December 31, 2009 by mieoux
I hate to say this but women from Muslim families who want to adopt a way of life that is more "Western" than what is already the norm in their own families should accept that from that point they cannot trust their family members and they cannot "go back home". If you really cannot live within the confines of Islam as it is practiced by your family members and relatives or if you have to say "no" to an arranged marriage, then you must run and not look back, they will trick you with feigned acceptance of your decision and kill you when you come back. You must leave your family behind and cut off ties, it's the safest way, it will be painful, but think of it as saving not only your own life but the lives of the daughters you could have in future.
13:03 December 31, 2009 by Fredfeldman
Appology accepted Jibzy. The fact is muslim immigrants are far more trouble in western countries than they are worth in my opinion, ditto the poor uneducated south american immigrants in the USA. Governments are desperate about the falling birth rate but ignore the very high price of immigration today in terms of health care, resource allocation, ecology, increased violence and living space depletion. Its all about cheap labor and ignorance of the very real price we all are paying and will pay.
18:36 December 31, 2009 by lordwilliams629
Jibzy what this shows is that people in a civilized country don't accept the culture of murder and torture of inocent people. It has nothing to do with not accepting the culture of other people. And for you to call those who condem the animals who do this as arrogant and ignorant, only shows what kind of a beast you are. My god this 20 year old girl is murderd in the early part of her life before she could even see the many things alot of us have seen already.For you to defend these murders shows only what kind of inhuman swine you are jibzy.
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