Parents among suspects after Turkish girl, eight, found dead in sack

Twenty two people face trial after man admits to disposing Narin Guran's body

Protesters in Istanbul on Sunday hold portraits of Narin Guran, eight, who was found dead after being missing for 19 days. AFP

Twenty-two people detained in relation to the murder of an eight-year-old girl in Turkey, including the victim's parents and several other relatives, have been referred to courts.

One suspect confessed to disposing of her body in exchange for 200,000 Turkish lira ($5,900).

Search and rescue personnel found the body of Narin Guran in a sack in a stream near her home in the south-eastern province of Diyarbakir on Sunday. She had been missing for almost three weeks.

“Twenty-two suspects are still in custody and they will be ready at the chief public prosecutor's office on September 12,” Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said on Thursday. Among the suspects are Narin’s mother, father, two elder brothers, four uncles and an aunt.

Narin's death has sparked shock and outrage across Turkey, where rights groups say 14 girls have been killed this year, nine of them with their mothers. Campaigners say authorities are failing to protect women and children from violence, often at the hands of male relatives.

Two of the suspects were arrested before Narin’s body was found on suspicion of murder and depriving a child of their liberty, Mr Tunc said.

One of them – Narin’s uncle – was suspended from his duties as a local mukhtar, or community leader. His lawyer has withdrawn from the case because she could not represent him, Turkish state news channel TRT reported on Thursday.

“I feel the deep sadness and pain of our beautiful daughter Narin's experiences directly as a mother,” the lawyer said. “I share with the whole public that I will closely follow the file from now on, not as a defender, but as a mother, as a citizen, and I hope that a fair trial will be held and all those responsible will be tried.”

A second suspect confessed to disposing Narin's body after saying he was threatened by her uncle. The suspect said that Narin's uncle had accosted him in his vehicle, showed him the girl's body wrapped in a blanket and ordered him to dispose of it.

“[Narin's uncle] showed me something wrapped in the blanket in the vehicle's front passenger seat and said: 'You will destroy this,’” the suspect told police. “I was surprised … when I realised that it was a person lying motionless wrapped in the blanket.”

He quoted Narin's uncle as saying: “Think of your family well. I will give you 200,000 lira. Do you have a bag in your car?”

Investigators are waiting for the results of a forensic examination of vehicles believed to have been used in the incident, as well as samples taken from the scene, Mr Tunc said.

“A final report on the cause of death is awaited from the Forensic Medicine Institute,” he added.

Narin's body was found after a 19-day search involving a sweep of 49km of waterways and 21 wells by 4,656 rescuers, 23 dogs, 172 vehicles, two helicopters, 64 drones and five underground imaging devices, Mr Tunc said.

Her death has sparked protests across Turkey, with civil society groups and other activists demanding more effective enforcement of laws aimed at protecting women and children’s rights.

In 2021, Turkey withdrew from the Istanbul Convention, a Council of Europe treaty on preventing and combatting violence against women. The country is a signatory to the Lanzarote Convention, a similar pact aimed at preventing the sexual abuse and exploitation of children.

Campaigners said Turkish authorities need to “embrace” their obligations under such treaties to identify cases of abuse through peer reporting and social early warning systems.

“These are what we call exemplary policies,” lawyer Esin Ozel Uysal, who works with civil society organisation We Will Stop Femicides Platform, told The National.

“For example, schools are now reopening, and risk screening forms need to be implemented effectively in all schools.”