Serif Alpsozman
Born: 1976
Killed and run over: 23/24 August 1999
Residence: Bremen
Origin: Turkey
Children: none
Perpetrators: four Kurds: Sehmus M., Ahmet T., Iskender T., Mehmet E.
Men can also become victims of honor killings, and this is when they are involved in the "misconduct" of a woman. In this case, it is 18-year-old Ayse who does not want to marry the man her father has in mind for her. She loves Serif, moves in with him and secretly marries him.
Ayse's father cannot let this happen. To restore his honor, he turns to the PKK. The PKK sees an opportunity to set an example: Because the fighters are not allowed to marry (among themselves). They must dedicate their lives entirely to the service of the party. And Serif is a PKK fighter: both his feet were torn off during the battle, his spine is damaged, he is in a wheelchair. Ayse-or rather her parents-are also PKK activists. Moreover, her father believes that because of his injuries, Serif cannot fulfill his duties as a husband anyway.
When the young couple refuses to appear before a PKK court, three Kurds drown Ayse in the mud on the banks of the Weser River in August 1999. Serif is beaten to death and run over.
In April 2001, the Bremen District Court considered the crime not murder, but manslaughter. There was no basic motive: the known suspects could not be charged with basic motives because of their strongly internalized indigenous values. Therefore, the crime was not murder, but manslaughter. Mehmet will receive nine years and six months in prison, the others between 13 and 15 years. One of them was represented by scandal lawyer Rolf Bossi, who has taken on a mandate in several honor killing cases.
In February 2002, the Federal Supreme Court overturned the convictions of the three main perpetrators. But even in the retrial, the murder remains because of "the upbringing tradition of their people." Ayse's father, whose honor was at stake, appears as a co-plaintiff (not a defendant).
In the summer of 2014, the double murder is in the media again: there are still files about the killers' helpers that have not been dealt with by the Bremen District Court 15 years after the crime. The case is bogging down, in 2015 the file is closed.
