Apartment camera recordings to be examined in Duygu Bölükbaş case

In the incident that took place in the Bornova district of İzmir in November 2022, marketing manager Duygu Bölükbaş was found dead hanging on a bath towel rack in the bathroom of her house. Following the incident, her boyfriend Emre T. and her aunt S.T. claimed that Bölükbaş had committed suicide. However, the Forensic Medicine Report determined DNA belonging to the defendant Emre T. on the victim's nail samples and t-shirt, and the statements of the site security guards included information that the defendant had previously tried to enter the house with a knife in his hand. In light of this evidence, as the event was evaluated within the scope of the crime of 'intentional killing', a detention decision was issued for Emre T., and he was detained approximately one and a half years after the incident.

In the indictment prepared by the Prosecutor's Office, it was emphasized that it was physically impossible for Duygu Bölükbaş to hang herself with a sheet, and a lawsuit was filed against Emre T. demanding an aggravated life sentence for the crime of 'intentional killing of a woman'. While the trial process continued, Emre T. insisted on the claim of suicide, but a decision of acquittal was issued for the defendants in the case heard at the local court, the İzmir 3rd Heavy Penal Court. The court panel announced its decision by stating that no definite and concrete evidence could be obtained that the defendant committed the crime, that the defenses were consistent, and that a conviction could not be ruled due to the principle of 'benefit of the doubt for the defendant'.

Following this acquittal decision, the İzmir Chief Public Prosecutor's Office and the plaintiff lawyers appealed the decision. The İzmir Regional Court of Justice 4th Criminal Chamber, which examined the file, decided to overturn the verdict of the local court due to deficiencies in procedure and substance. The appellate court counted the failure to investigate, by obtaining a report from the Istanbul Forensic Medicine Institute, whether death by hanging on the bath towel rack in the bathroom was medically possible, the failure to examine the time records on the camera recordings by expert witnesses, and the detailed analysis of phone data belonging to the day of the incident as deficiencies in its reasoned decision.

Following the overturning decision, the retrial began at the İzmir 3rd Heavy Penal Court and the last hearing was held in the past few days. The hearing was attended by the defendants who are free on bail, as well as Duygu Bölükbaş's family, their lawyers, and members of the We Will Stop Femicide Platform. The court president announced that they had initiated a process to address the deficiencies listed among the grounds for overturning by the appellate court. Speaking at the hearing, the Bölükbaş family requested that the defendant be punished in the harshest way for their daughter to find justice, while the defendant Emre T., who is free on bail, claimed innocence and requested the lifting of the ban on leaving the city.

The prosecution, presenting its opinion at the hearing, stated that the defendant's current judicial control measures should continue and that the deficiencies in the file should be eliminated as soon as possible. The court panel decided to continue the defendant's judicial control status in line with these requests. On the other hand, the panel ruled that an official letter be sent to the camera company to access the security camera recordings at the apartment site on the day of the incident and to complete other missing documents. As a result of the interim decision, the hearing was adjourned to November 26 for the elimination of deficiencies.