Syria man jailed in Turkey for murder of anti-Assad activists

A Turkish court has handed down two life sentences to a Syrian man for the murder of an anti-Assad activist and her daughter in Istanbul last year, according to the private news agency Dogan.

The bodies of 60-year-old Orouba Barakat and her 22-year-old daughter Halla were discovered in their apartment in Istanbul’s Uskudar neighbourhood last September. The post-mortem examinations on the bodies indicated that the pair had been dead for three days, both showing signs of stab wounds and strangulation.

Ahmed Barakat, a distant relative of the two women, was arrested in the city of Bursa, 90 kilometres south of Istanbul, three days later, after CCTV footage placed him at the crime scene.

In October, Turkish Ihlas News Agency reported that Ahmed had confessed to the crime upon his arrest: “I killed Orouba and Halla Barakat. I accept my charges. Both of them are my relatives,” he said.

Read: Prominent Syrian activist shot dead in Turkey

Whilst the motive has not been officially disclosed by Turkish police, associates of the Barakats told MEMO that the issue had been a family matter. Ahmad Barakat had reportedly been working in a local NGO run by Orouba, and frequently complained of not being paid enough. He is believed to have gone to the Barakat’s house to demand his money where an argument ensued, during which he killed Orouba and Halla.

A prominent Syrian activist, Orouba was investigating reports of torture in prisons run by the Syrian government. She had initially lived in Britain, then the United Arab Emirates before coming to Istanbul. Her daughter Halla was an editor at Orient Net, a pro-Syrian opposition website.

According to family members, both women had been threatened by the Syrian regime prior to their deaths, prompting many opposition activists to initially suspect that the Syrian government was behind the murders. However, subsequent investigations have not found that their political affiliations played a part in their deaths.

Read: Assassination: A tool to suppress dissent in Syria