Trial for murder of Turkish Cypriot girl delayed again

The trial of Sefer Bugra Altundag, who suspected of murdering 16-year-old Turkish Cypriot girl Zehie Helin Reessur, was delayed on Thursday until December 8 after Altundag’s lawyer said he wanted time to speak with the defendant and his family.

By the next hearing the trial will have been delayed for almost a year.

The prosecutor told the Trikomo criminal court that this “must be the last time” the case can be delayed.

Altundag had previously appeared in court on November 13, maintaining that he accepts all charges except that of premeditated murder.

He has already been convicted of “violating a military base” while escaping the scene of the murder in military court in September , and as a result will spend three years in military prison.

Earlier, the Trikomo district court had heard how Reessur saw Altundag as a brother, and about how she had called her boyfriend on the night of the murder, telling him Altundag had “hit [her] on the nose” before the call swiftly ended.

In a previous hearing, the court had heard how Altundag had “hit her head six times with iron hammer” and then “twice in the chin with an iron mould tension screw”.