04.11.2026 17:11
Fatmanur Okur, who killed her husband Şükrü Okur by shooting him with a rifle in the İzmit district of Kocaeli, was sentenced to 16 years and 8 months in prison. The court panel applied the provisions of unjust provocation and discretionary mitigation to the defendant. In her final defense, Okur, who claimed that she had been subjected to violence throughout her marriage, said, “I screamed silently for help, but no one heard. I only wanted to frighten him and make him run away; I did not want to kill him.”
A decision has been issued in the trial of a woman in Kocaeli who shot and killed her husband with a rifle in July last year. The prosecutor’s office had requested an aggravated life sentence for the defendant.
THE INCIDENT OCCURRED ON JULY 19, 2025
The incident occurred on July 19, 2025, on the first floor of a three-story house in the Alikahya Fatih Neighborhood of İzmit district. An argument broke out between 36-year-old Fatmanur Okur and her 29-year-old husband Şükrü Okur. As the argument escalated, Fatmanur Okur shot her husband with a rifle. Medical teams arriving at the scene determined that Şükrü Okur, a father of one child, had died. Fatmanur Okur, who was taken into custody, was arrested by the court she was referred to.
PROSECUTOR SOUGHT AGGRAVATED LIFE SENTENCE
The detained defendant Fatmanur Okur and the parties’ lawyers attended the hearing at the Kocaeli 8th High Criminal Court. The public prosecutor reiterated his opinion on the merits and requested that the defendant be sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment. The prosecutor requested that, if the provisions on unjust provocation were applied taking into account the violence the defendant stated she was subjected to during the marriage, she be given a life sentence.
“I SCREAMED SILENT SCREAMS FOR HELP BUT NO ONE HEARD”
In her final defense, Fatmanur Okur said she did not commit the act knowingly and claimed that she was subjected to violence throughout her marriage and asked for help. Okur spoke as follows:
“I wish he were alive and I could have divorced him. I screamed silent screams for help, but no one heard. Everyone played blind, deaf, and mute. I just wanted to scare him away; I did not want to kill him. I was never cruel to him. I am someone whose childhood was taken from me by force. Wasn’t the torment I endured for 10 years enough? How much longer will I live with the dream of my child? I want to be reunited with my child. At least I want house arrest.”
16 YEARS AND 8 MONTHS IN PRISON
The court panel sentenced the defendant Fatmanur Okur to 16 years and 8 months in prison by applying the provisions on unjust provocation and discretionary mitigation.
SHE HAD CLAIMED IN A PREVIOUS HEARING THAT SHE WAS SUBJECTED TO VIOLENCE
In her defense at previous hearings, Okur had claimed that throughout their 11-year marriage she struggled with her husband’s drug addiction and violence. Claiming that she wanted to divorce her husband but was threatened, Okur had alleged that her husband threatened to harm her and her family, harmed her pets, and that she had three miscarriages due to the violence she suffered.
“I PICKED UP THE GUN TO SCARE HIM”
Also describing the night of the incident, Okur had said that they argued after her husband claimed that their daughter was not his. Okur had spoken as follows:
“On the night of the incident, I was eating with my child. He was under the influence of drugs. He claimed that the child was not his. I calmed him down at night and fed him. I fell asleep with my child, and after a while he woke me up. He wanted to take me to a woman’s house and sell me. He said, ‘Get up, we’re going, they’ve come.’ My daughter woke up to the sounds, and he kicked her. I said, ‘Fine, I will sell myself and buy you drugs.’ Then I put my child to sleep. I took my father’s rifle from upstairs. When I came back, he was lying on the bed. We argued, and he said, ‘I cut heads nicely, you know that well.’ He said that even if I reported him, nothing would happen to him. Then when he made a move toward me, the rifle suddenly went off. I had picked up the gun to scare him. I did not do it knowingly or intentionally. I learned that he had died only in prison. I was subjected to his cruelty and violence for 11 years.”