Turkish girl, 16, 'buried alive by her father because she had friendships with boys'

Last updated at 2:04 PM on 05th February 2010

A 16-year-old Turkish girl died after being buried alive under a chicken coop by relatives because she talked to boys.

The body of Medine Memi was found in a sitting position with her hands tied in a 6ft hole dug in the courtyard of her family's home in Kahta, south-eastern Turkey, 40 days after she had been reported missing. The hole had been cemented over.

The teenager had a large amount of soil in her lungs and stomach - showing she suffered a slow and agonising death.

'The post mortem result is blood-curdling. According to our findings, the girl – who had no bruises on her body and no sign of narcotics or poison in her blood – was alive and fully conscious when she was buried,' said a forensics expert.

uspicion that her death had been especially brutal led to the commissioning of a report by university scientists after the original post-mortem examination.

Medine Meme's father and grandfather have now been arrested and jailed awaiting trial. The girl's mother was arrested, but later released.

It has emerged that the girl had made a complaint to police about her grandfather two months before she went missing, saying that he beat her because she talked to boys.

In addition her father Ayhan is said to have told relatives that he was unhappy that his daughter - one of nine children - had male friends.

Police made the grisly discovery in December following a tip-off from an informant.

After Medine's body was found in December, her mother Immihan said: 'She tried to take refuge at the police station three times, and she was sent home three times.'

he case has caused outrage in Turkey and reopened the debate over so-called honour killings which are particularly prevalent in the predominantly Kurdish south-east of the country.

Such killings are usually decided by a council of relatives which consist of the elders of the family.

Official figures state there are more than 200 such killings a year, around half of all murders in Turkey.

One commentator wrote on the website of a religious TV station: 'The punishment for whosoever should kill with intent is the hell where he will languish forever. Allah has cursed him and prepared great pain for him

'You named your daughter after the holy city of Medina but your mind is left over from the earlier Age of Ignorance.'

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