Beaten woman dies after days of battle in Turkey

A woman who was allegedly held captive and severely beaten by her boyfriend for four days in July died Thursday in the Central Anatolian province of Konya.

Meral Tahta, 32, was found at a bus stop in Konya on July 18, severely beaten and unconscious. Further examination at Konya Numune Hospital showed that she had suffered a brain hemorrhage due to blows she received to her head and that her kidneys had failed to due to dehydration and malnutrition.

Police apprehended Tahta’s boyfriend, Mustafa Konuk, who allegedly tortured her for four days after the couple had an argument, punching and kicking her and depriving her of food and water. He later left Tahta at a bus stop in Konya’s Selçuklu district and called police to say he had left his girlfriend there.

Konuk was arrested by a court on charges of attempted voluntary manslaughter. Tahta had two children from a previous marriage and was working as a waitress in a local bar. One woman was meanwhile killed and four injured by their husbands during the first three days of the Ramadan bayram holiday.

In the northwestern province of Sakarya’s Karapürçek district, a woman was allegedly killed by her husband for filing for divorce. The husband, A.Ö., was reported to have been barred from his home several times through court decisions for violence against his wife.

Some 27,000 cases of domestic violence, involving 26,000 women, were reported to police in the first six months of 2011, including cases of murder, assault and threats.


/Hurriyet Daily News/