Life Sentence for Murder of Italian Artist Pippa Bacca

Italian performance artist Giuseppina Pasqualino Di Morineo, who called herself Pippa Bacca, was killed in Kocaeli, western Turkey, when hitchhiking through the country as part of a world tour for world peace with her friend Silvia Moro.

Bacca had left Milan on 8 March 2008, and had aimed at reaching Tel Aviv by hitch-hiking. After leaving Istanbul, she disappeared, and her body was later found in Gebze, to the east of Istanbul.

The Kocaeli 1st Heavy Penal Court handed down its sentence for suspect Murat Karataş on Thursday (25 June).

At the eighth hearing of the case, he was given a life sentence for murder, in addition to 7.5 years for sexual asault, 5 years for restricting a person's freedom, and 1 year and 8 months for theft.

Appeal is likely

Feminist women had attempted to join the trial as third party plaintiffs, but were rejected at each stage of the trial. Hasbiye Günaçtı told bianet:

"The defence lawyer said that his client had stated verbally and in writing that he had not commited the crime and that he demanded that a taxi driver be heard as a witness. Bacca's lawyer Mehmet Eke demanded that the trial not be extended. When Karataş was sentenced to a life in prison, he shouted when leaving the court, 'I am innocent, the real perpetrators are outside.'"

Günaçtı pointed out that the suspect had objected after a forensic medical report had stated the possibility of two or three perpetrators, and that he had accepted the crime beforehand.

The judge has allowed for the possibility of an appeal.

Violence against women

The last court hearing was attended by the artist's sister, Antonia Giuseppina Beatrice Pasgualina Di Marineo, and mother, Elena Manzonı Dı Chıosca.

According to Günaçtı, the mother and sister had expected a longer sentence, but had expressed their satisfaction with a life sentence.

Günaçtı also stated that the case had to be evaluated from a feminist perspective:

"The sentence must not be based on a desire of Turkey to exculpate itself. We have to think beyond international relations, of the necessity to punish violence against women. The Pippa Bacca case is not an issue of nations but a trial of a woman's murder." (EZÖ/AG)