Turkish Cypriot man sentenced to life in prison for the murder of 16-year-old girl

Turkish Cypriot Sefer Bugra Altundag, the man who killed 16-year-old Zehie Helin Reessur in January last year, was found guilty on five counts and sentenced to life in imprisonment by a court in Iskele on Friday.

Altundag had been charged with premeditated murder, manslaughter, causing grievous bodily harm, serious assault, and attempted rape and was found guilty of all charges on Thursday.

Reessur was murdered in the early hours of January 25, 2023.

Judge Hasan Dagli said Altundag had planned the murder beforehand, and that he “had enough time to give up” during the process of the crime, but that “he continued his actions with determination”.

“Sefer Bugra Altundag hit Helin’s head with a hammer six times and she died as a result of a brain haemorrhage and internal organ injuries. He hit Helin in various parts of her body, and this showed that this was not a moment of madness as the defendant had claimed,” he said.

After Friday’s decision, Reessur’s mother Zisan Saltukhan said, “I am going to give my daughter the good news, may she rest in peace.

“The other party has been very provocative towards us. [Altundag’s] mother said ‘I raised my son like a flower’. Your son has been convicted, ask yourself how you feel. I also have expectations from social services after this. There are two more children in that family. As a mother, I request that social services deal with this issue,” she said.

She added, “these children are growing up in that family and have experienced this event. The state should take care of those children. Now, I want to go to my daughter,” before travelling to her daughter’s grave in Famagusta.

It was heard in a previous hearing that Altundag had taken her from Famagusta, her hometown, to the construction site of the Grand Sapphire resort in the Long Beach area of Iskele.

He then reportedly hit her six times in the head with an iron hammer while still inside his car, before she attempted to make an escape. He then put her back in his car and hit her twice in the chin with an iron mould tension screw.

Famagusta policeman Hakan Ozcuremez testified that Reessur’s boyfriend had told him she had been “with someone she saw as a brother, called Sefer” during the first of two phone calls between the two on the night she was killed.

However, when she next called him an hour later, there were audible arguments in the background, and Reessur reportedly only said “he hit me in the nose” before the call ended.

Altundag was sentenced to three years in prison by a military court for illegally entering a military base while fleeing the scene of the murder.

He had then escaped to south Cyprus, but then turned himself into police and was transferred back to the north.