JINHA

SÊRT – A woman named Kevi Elban is still missing 3.5 months after she got into a car with her abusive husband in the Kurdish region of Turkey. The prosecutor's office has refused toinvestigate the disappearance, saying there is "inadequate evidence."

53-year-old Kevi Elbanset out from the city of Batman, Turkey with her husband, Süleyman Elban, three and a half months ago. She never arrived at their destination in the city of Siirt, one and a half hours away. The mother of eight was last seen in a village near Batman.Kevi had long been abused by her husband. He stabbed her on two separate occasions. Kevi's family applied to the state prosecutor to investigate her disappearance, saying they strongly suspect that her husband killed her.

The prosecutor in Batman rejected the family's request to investigate the disappearance because of what they call "no evidence" for the claim that her husband killed her. The family has also received no response from missing persons offices and police in the region.

The family has traveled from village to village in search of Kevi since her disappearance. Her brother Diyaettin Ersu says the family has now applied to the Siirt province branch of the NGO the Human Rights Association (İHD).

(şö/fk/cm)