Zisan Saltukhan, the mother of 16-year-old Cypriot girl Zehie Helin Reessur, who was murdered in January last year, on Thursday demanded the “harshest punishment” for her daughter’s killer.
Speaking to newspaper Yeni Duzen ahead of the case’s final hearing on October 24, she said she had demanded “from the very beginning” that her daughter’s killer Sefer Bugra Altundag, now 23 years old, receive an aggravated life sentence.
She then added that after Altundag had spoken at the last four hearings of the case, she had learned that he was in fact abusing Reessur.
“I learned in court that my daughter was being abused. He chose to kill Helin to silence her. He said this himself, because Helin was going to go and report him. It was not a planned murder at first, but he wanted to silence my daughter,” she said.
“My daughter fought despite this. She could have survived if she had received medical help. He did not allow it. That is why I want the most severe punishment, and that punishment is an aggravated life sentence.”
She then added, “even if he receives the most severe punishment, my heart will never cool down and my daughter will never come back, but she will be able to rest in peace where she is.”
Reessur was murdered in the early hours of January 25, 2023.
It was heard in court in August last year that Altundag had taken her from Famagusta, her hometown, to the construction site of the Grand Sapphire resort in the Long Beach area of Trikomo.
He then reportedly hit her six times in the head with an iron hammer while still inside his car, before she attempted to make an escape. He then put her back in his car and hit her twice in the chin with an iron mould tension screw.
Later in August, Famagusta policeman Hakan Ozcuremez testified that Reessur’s boyfriend had told him she had been “with someone she saw as a brother, called Sefer” during the first of two phone calls between the two on the night she was killed.
However, when she next called him an hour later, there were audible arguments in the background, and Reessur reportedly only said “he hit me in the nose” before the call ended.
Altundag was sentenced to three years in prison by a military court for illegally entering a military base while fleeing the scene of the murder.
He had then travelled to the Republic, but then turned himself into police and was transferred back to the north.
Her family held a ceremony to mark what would have been her 18th birthday on April 27 this year, with relatives and some of her friends and teachers from school visiting her grave in Famagusta and leaving flowers and balloons.
“If she were still with us, she would probably be celebrating this special day with her loved ones, but in the spring of her life, she was unexpectedly taken away from us,” her aunt Cihan Tuccar said.
She went on to say, “the love and the memory of Helin will always remain alive in our hearts. We shall always cherish her memory. Helin was a special person who spread joy and love to those around her, despite her short life.”
