Turkish man accused of burying daughter alive faces life sentence

The pair were arrested after the body of 16-year-old M.M. was found in a sitting position with her hands tied, in a hole in a chicken pen outside her house in Kahta town, Adiyaman province, 40 days after she went missing.

A postmortem showed a significant amount of soil in her lungs and stomach, meaning she was buried alive, forensic experts have said.

Her father Ayhan Memi, 40, and grandfather Fethi Memi, 65, have refused to talk to investigators and prosecutors since their arrest in early December.

The judicial source said they would likely face a charge of "premeditated homicide with aggravating circumstances, perpetrated with cruelty" being drawn up by prosecutors.

Turkish law demands life in prison if convicted of those charges.

The teenager "never went to school and perhaps barely knew how to read and write," Muhammed Cevik, who owns the local Kahta newspaper, told AFP.

So-called honor killings — when a family member is called on to kill a female relative considered to have sullied their honor — claim many victims every year despite attempts by the government and associations to halt them.

Surveys show such crimes still enjoy some measure of tolerance in Turkey's mainly Kurdish Southeast, where they are most prevalent.

/Hurriyet Daily News/