WARNING – DISTURBING CONTENT: A group of men who threw a 17-year-old girl from the balcony of a fifth-floor hotel room so that she would not witness the rape have been sentenced to life imprisonment in Turkey. The heinous crime has shocked the country.

High school student Gamze Acar was lured to a nearby hotel because she thought she was going to interview for a job she had seen online.

Instead, she was brutally raped by Riza Dogan and thrown to her death on December 7, 2020, a Turkish court ruled.

Accomplice Mustafa Emre Demiral was in the room and helped Dogan throw the victim from the balcony.

Three other defendants were acquitted due to lack of evidence.

The prosecution said the five defendants had introduced themselves as “employees of a time-share company.” Turkish media reported that some of the hotel rooms were on the market as time-share offers. The court heard that Dogan offered the victim cannabis, but she refused. The five defendants also drank alcohol all evening.

The next morning, there was a commotion in the hotel room before the victim was thrown screaming to his death from the hotel balcony.

Dogan claimed that Gamze committed suicide, but investigators could not find any of her fingerprints on the balcony railing.

The 1.08-meter-high railing was too high for her to simply jump over without touching it, the court said.

According to reports, her pants were also found unbuttoned at the scene of her death.

Investigators also found broken objects and glass scattered around the room, suggesting that an altercation had occurred.

Gamze’s uncle Murat Yilmaz said at the time of his niece’s death: “Gamze was found with her trouser buttons open. That was not suicide, that was murder.”

“She was a cheerful person. They beat her at night and people heard her screams. Those who heard something left a statement. The truth will come out.”

Riza Dogan was sentenced to an aggravated life sentence – meaning he must spend at least 30 years in prison – for “intentional killing”, as well as a further 17 years for sexual assault and nine years for deprivation of liberty.

Demiral was also sentenced to an aggravated life sentence for intentional killing and nine years for deprivation of liberty.

The public prosecutor could not determine whether he was involved in the sexual assault.

Femicide is a growing problem in Turkey, especially after the country officially withdrew from the Istanbul Convention in July last year.

According to the 2021 annual data report published by the We Will Stop Femicide platform, 280 women were killed by men in 2021, while 217 women were found dead under suspicious circumstances.

According to daily updated data from the Monument Counter, a “digital memorial for women killed by violence,” there have been 333 femicides in Turkey so far this year.

If you or someone you know is suffering from sexual or domestic abuse, do not suffer in silence, call 1800 RESPECT at any time of day or night.

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