In a gruesome case of recidivism, prisoner released under recent amnesty batters his daughter to death

A man who was imprisoned for stabbing his wife a year ago murdered his daughter after his release from prison under a recently enacted amnesty, DHA reported.

Müslüm Aslan, 33, who was jailed last year because he had stabbed his wife, Rukiye Aslan, with whom he had argued, was released following an amnesty passed by the legislature on April 14 aimed at preventing the spread of the coronavirus in Turkey’s overcrowded prisons.

Aslan took his three children from his in-laws’ house to his own home. He beat his eldest daughter, Ceylan, aged 9, with a hose. Leaving his battered daughter on the floor, he called police and reported what he had done. He then brought his other children, Yusuf İlker (7) and Bünyamin (5), back to his wife, who had filed for divorce and was living with her parents.

Arriving at the man’s house after the call, the police had emergency services transport Ceylan to a hospital and detained Müslüm Aslan, who had fled to a park. He appeared in court after his interrogation, was arrested and jailed.

Meanwhile, it was determined during a crime scene investigation that Müslüm Aslan had cut down a curtain splattered with his daughter’s blood after the incident and burned it in a stove.

Ceylan, who was critically injured in the beating and put in intensive care, could not be saved despite the best efforts of the doctors. Her body was sent to the Institute of Forensic Medicine for autopsy.

Rukiye Aslan, continuing to live in her father’s house with her remaining two children after her daughter’s death, said she had constantly been abused by her husband during their entire marriage. “Last month, in Ramadan, he cut my throat with some scissors and beat me. I took my children to my father’s house. I barely survived the attack. I filed for divorce and also filed a criminal complaint. The police then captured Müslüm and put him in prison. After his release he said to me, ‘Let’s settle our problems and reconcile,’ but I refused,” the woman said.

According to Rukiye Aslan, her husband wanted to take the children for a few days after his release. “I let him take the children because he is, after all, their father. But when I asked him to send them back, he procrastinated. He used violence against my children all the time. He hung my elder daughter from a wall by her arms, then battered her with a hose. Leaving Ceylan in a pool of blood on the floor, he took a taxi and left my two sons in front of our house and then ran away. My daughter is dead. I want this murderer to be punished,” she said.

Müslüm Aslan is one of the tens of thousands of prisoners released from prison following an amnesty passed by the Turkish parliament to curb the spread of the coronavirus in the country’s overcrowded prisons.

The amnesty, which provides the possibility of early parole or house arrest for a broad range of offenders yet excludes political prisoners, among whom are tens of thousands of journalists, lawyers, politicians, academics, human right defenders and civil servants indicted or convicted under the country’s controversial and broadly interpreted anti-terrorism laws, has been harshly criticized.

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