Serial killer released by Turkish judiciary, which is holding 17,000 women and 700 children in prison, kills another man

A Turkish serial killer dubbed “the Hunter” has killed another man one year after his release from prison.

Hamdi Kayapınar, 39, was arrested for the August 2 killing of Sami Yılmaz, the security guard at a villa in the Central Anatolian province of Kayseri, according to a report by the Hürriyet Daily News.

Kayapınar confessed to the murder and said he killed the man because he “liked his gun.” Police found several pistols and shotguns at the suspect’s house. Kayapınar had committed his first murder in 1994 when he killed his brother by strangling him.

After his conditional release in 1998, Yılmaz killed seven men in three years. He was arrested in 2002 and sentenced to life in prison. He was conditionally released again in February 2017.

Almost a decade ago, the Turkish media had dubbed Kayapınar “the Hunter,” after he referred to his victims as “prey” and their belongings as “bounty.” Kayapınar had told the judge that he started to kill people out of hatred toward society, which he said started when he was pushed out of his family and the community after his first murder.

The Turkish judiciary and Turkish government, which are arbitrarily holding at least 17,000 women and more than 700 children with their mothers in prisons, have been widely criticised both in Turkey and abroad since they have not released these people as they released the criminals.

Mothers of most of the children in Turkish jails have been arrested as part of a government crackdown on followers of the Gülen movement in the aftermath of a controversial coup attempt in Turkey on July 15, 2016, and most of them are in pre-trial detention and not yet convicted of a crime.

Around 17,000 women including pregnant women and women who have just given birth as well as those with small children have been jailed due to alleged Gülen links since the botched coup.

According to data from the Turkish Justice Ministry concerning the number of children who are in jail with their mothers, there were 560 such children in 2016, 128 of whom were aged one, 114 aged two, 81 aged three, 70 aged four, 31 aged five and five of whom were aged six as well as 17 other children whose ages were not known by the authorities.

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