A professional boxer who beat his petite girlfriend senseless before stabbing her to death with a knife has been jailed for only 24 years instead of 40 after claiming diminished responsibility and that he could not remember what happened.

The case involved Turkish national boxer Selim Ahmet Kemaloglu, 26, who said that he could not remember anything about the day he killed Zeynep Senpinar, 25, with a kitchen knife during the coronavirus lockdown.

The couple had apparently agreed to separate a month previously, but because of the lockdown, they were still together when he allegedly beat her and then stabbed her to death.

Speaking to the court, he said: “I don’t remember the moment of the event.”

Asked if he accepted that he had stabbed her, he told the prosecutor: “I don’t remember whether I stabbed her or not. I already have psychological problems.”

This prompted the court to give him the reduced sentence of ‘aggravated life imprisonment’ at the Mugla 1st Heavy Penal Court for the crime of ‘killing a person who is unable to defend themself in terms of body or spirit’.

The case, already delayed by the coronavirus pandemic, started with the defendant connected to the court remotely after the indictment was finally filed by the Mugla Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office over the killing that happened on 24th May in Kotekli neighbourhood of Mentese District of Mugla.

It is a standard plea to claim that either they are suffering from a mental issue or alternatively that they were provoked to get a reduced sentence, and that was what happened here when he told the court: “I was dragged into this situation because I was mentally depressed. I have no other words to say.”

The court then staged a five-minute adjournment, and when they returned, announced that the good conduct abatement was applied for Selim.

It meant that he escaped the aggravated life imprisonment that would have seen him jailed for anything between 36 and 40 years.

A life sentence in Turkey, which is what he now has, is 24 years in prison, whereas an aggravated life sentence is what was introduced to replace what used to be the death penalty. Prisoners sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment can be paroled after serving at least 36 years, or 40 years if given more than one sentence.

According to the report of news outlet NTV, family lawyer Haydar Ikizer said, “We will appeal to the decision. There is little hope. We hope that the Supreme Court will accept our appeal. We do not know what to say to the family.”

The young woman’s mother, Aruz Senpinar, said she was horrified when she learned that the alleged killer had been violently attacking her daughter previously as well.

She said: “I learned that the defendant battered my daughter many times and threatened her.”