JINHA

NEWS CENTER - The first hearing in the case of Özgecan Aslan, the university student killed while resisting rape in Turkey's Mersin province, starts tomorrow in the district of Tarsus. Women's groups have organized attendance from across Turkey, with 660 lawyers observing the case.

20-year-old Özgecan Aslan was a psychology student in Tarsus. On February 11, she headed home via minibus from her campus to her home in the city of Mersin. On that bus, she was raped, killed and burned by three men, including the bus driver. The three men--bus driver Suphi Altındöken, his father Necmettin and their friend Fatih Gökçe--will go on trial tomorrow in a case expected to draw mass attendance. Women's groups are applying to the court to sit in on the hearing.

A number of women's groups have called for demonstrations in front of the courthouse to protest the state of impunity for male perpetrators of femicide, a condition many say emboldened Özgecan's killers and countless others. The platform "We Will Stop Women Homicides" said in their call that Özgecan "has become the symbol of all women who want to be able to breathe, work, divorce, get an education or just walk in the streets--that is, all women in Turkey." The Socialist Women's Assemblies also called women to the courthouse.

Thousands will be gathering at the Tarsus courthouse starting tomorrow at 9:30 a.m.

(fk/cm)