'Saw' Inspired Killer Freed by Lazy Court

saw (links to original article)

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 8 February 2011)

Celalettin Erkal (24) stabbed his high school girlfriend Funda Işşiz
in 37 places and hid the body in an unused deep freezer in an incident
that occured in Urla district of Izmir in 2005. Erkal was sentenced to
life for the crime but because the sentence was not confirmed by
a higher court, the Yargıtay,  Erkal has been released from prison in
accordance with section 102 of the Sentence Court Law (CMK).

The higher court made the decision to release Erkal from Uşak prison
on 31 January upon the request of his lawyer who stated that Erkal
had served more than the mandatory five years of his sentence.

Erkal, who at the time of the crime was a student in the electronics
section of the senior professional school at Dokuz Eylül University,
stated that 'I thought she was cheating on me. My love had been
sacrificed. I committed the crime as I had seen it done in the film
'Saw' that I'd watched before.'

The Izmir 9th Serious Crimes Court sentenced Erkal to life in prison
but the Yargıtay court voided the order because it found the related
report by the Forensic Medicine Council to be incomplete. The
report was then remedied and the original court re-issued the same
life sentence and it went to the Yargıtay for review. The Yargıtay,
however, has still not produced a result on the case.

Funda Işsiz's family has filed suit in the Urla Court of First Instance
asking for a total of 400,000 Turkish Liras compensation - 200,000
for pain and suffering and 200,000 for material damages. The suit
is continuing.