Lawyer of Şule Çet’s murderers becomes MP candidate from far-right Victory Party

Duvar English

Paşa Büyükkayaer, the lawyer of two men who raped and murdered Gazi University student Şule Çet in 2018, has become a parliamentary candidate from the far-right Victory Party for the central Çorum province.

Büyükkayaer announced the move on April 9 on Twitter. “2023 General Elections have a historical existential referendum importance for Turkish Nationalists and Kemalists. The Turkish Nation is not condemned to alliances supported by the HDP and HÜDA-PAR because there is now Victory Party and its chairman Ümit Özdağ! How happy is the one who says I’m a Turk,” he tweeted.

In 2019, businessman Çağatay Aksu was sentenced to life in jail for Çet’s rape and murder while his colleague Berk Akand was sentenced to 18 years and nine months for assisting in the crimes, in one of the most controversial femicide cases in the country in the past several years. In 2022, the Court of Cassation upheld the sentences.

Aksu and Akand claimed that Çet had committed suicide, a claim initially backed up by the police and the local prosecutor's office. However, after heavy campaigning by women's rights groups, journalists and politicians, Çet’s case was reopened as a murder investigation.

Büyükkayaer, who was the lawyer of the murderers, at the time argued that the jail terms given to his clients were the result of “public pressure.” During the trial process, he insulted Çet’s family members on several occasions. Also, during his university years, Büyükkayaer is known to have been involved in several attacks against other students at Ankara's University's Law Faculty.