Defendant Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison for Killing Trans Woman Esra Ateş

*Trans murders are political.

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The defendant in the case of the killing of transgender woman Esra Ateş in has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for intentional murder.

In his defense statement, Olcay Saka said that there was an unjust provocation and that he acted in justifiable self-defense. İstanbul 5th Heavy Penal Court ruled that such conditions did not exist and sentenced him to life imprisonment, Kaos GL reported.

Considering the negative effects of the sentence to the defendant's future, the court exercised discretionary mitigation and reduced the sentence to 25 years in prison.

Saka was also sentenced to 4 years and 2 months in prison for robbery as he stole Esra Ateş's phone during the incident.

What happened?

On August 25, 2018, Olcay Saka killed Esra Ateş by cutting her throat in front of the apartment building in where she lived in Beyoğlu, İstanbul.

Olcay was taken into custody while friends of Ateş waited in front of the police station for hours. The court on duty remanded Saka.

In his defense statement, Saka said, "I didn't understand if she was a man or a woman. I realized during the intercourse that he was a man." (EMK/VK)