Anatomy of an honor killing

23 year old Hatun Surucu was killed by her brothers 7 months ago in Berlin, Germany. According to the case file, prior to the murder which took place on February 7, 2005, three brothers practised firing their guns at Berlin's Gorlitzer Platz. While the gun was supplied by her oldest brother, Mutlu, it was Hatun's youngest brother, Ayhan, who committed the murder, while her middle brotherl, Alpaslan, watched. The Hurriyet newspaper has, for the first time, obtained the details behind the murder which rocked both Germany and Turkey earlier this year. Are you sorry?In the case prepared by the Berlin Prosecutor's offices, it is indicated that Hatun Surucu's brother Ayhan called her to meet him at a bus stop in the city, where he reportedly asked her whether she was sorry for the "sins she had committed." Hatun's other brothers, Mutlu and Alparslan, who were arrested along with Ayhan Surucu, reportedly told police that their "family honor" had been damaged by Hatun's "free life style" and her failure to follow traditions. Older brother supplied the gunAccording to files on the case, Hatun's oldest brother, Mutlu, secured the gun used to kill her two days before the murder. Following on this, Hatun's brothers apparently practised firing their newly bought gun in Berlin's Gorlitzer Platz, hitting rocks and trash cans as their targets. A former girlfriend of murder suspect Ayhan Surucu has testified that Hatun Surucu was the victim of sexual abuse at the hands of one of her brothers at an earlier date, indicating even that Hatun may have been raped by one of them. Insufficient cluesThe file on the case also notes that Hatun's mother and father, Kerem and Hanim Surucu, may have themselves called the family council in which it was decided that Hatun should die for her perceived transgressions. Hatun's lifeAccording to the case file, when Hatun was only 17 years old, she was married to Ismail Aslan, though she apparently returned to Berlin while pregnant as a result of being beaten by her husband. Hatun gave birth to a baby boy named Can in May of 1999, and then married her second husband, Sadik A., in May of 2000. Hatun then separated from this second husband in June of 2002. Around one year later, in August of 2003, she married Cem K., who she had known since 1999. It is suspected that this marriage was carried through with the express intent of obtaining residency for Cem K.. Threatened by her father with a knife, and then slapped by her brother on a city bus, Hatun Surucu lived a life not approved of by her family in the few years before her death.  Â