'Much Blood Will Flow' No Threat, Just Steam

//ed note: link for original article not available at this time.//

(Habertürk Newspaper, 14 February 2011)

Every day there's a new murder for 'love' which starts with a threat,
ends with death and the victim is a woman. And even if  woman who
suffer these threats, violence and, ultimately, vicious crimes from men
who can't bear being rejected, make petitions to public prosecutors
the horrific outcomes don't change.

A woman named A.N. in Isparta appealed to the prosecutor when
she received a message from a boyfriend she had left that read 'you
started this war, much blood will flow.'  Based on A.N.'s complaint,
the prosecutor then opened a case against her old boyfriend S.M.
because of the threat. During the trial, the Isparta 1st Magistrate
Court looked into whether or not the message had frightened A.N.

In a surprising development, the court found that this woman who
had been threatened with death had committed an 'unjustified action'
by rejecting her boyfriend. Furthermore, the court, based on its view
that the woman had acted unjustly, evaluated that it was 'natural for
the old boyfriend to send the 'much blood will flow' message because
he sent it while he was consumed with violent anger and anguish after
having been rejected.' With this interpretation, the court rendered a
decision to acquit based on its opinion that there had been no crime
associated with the threat.

The case was moved to a higher court, Yargıtay, after the prosecutor
objected to the Isparta court's ruling. The Yargıtay 4th Crimes Court
issued a decision that the woman has protection against verbal threats.
The Yargıtay made this evaluation: 'the act of threatening is a fact which
disturbs a person's serenity and which compromises a person's peace
of mind and freedom of thought and will. It is not a condition that the
threat should have an effect on the person in question during a particular
incident. For this reason, there is no need to determine whether or not
the victim was scared.'

The Yargıtay thereby voided the Isparta court's acquittal decision and
asked that S.M., who sent the message, be sentenced to between six
months and two years in jail.