Prosecutor is asking “life sentence with no parole” for Mustafa Karataş, who is accused of killing Italian artist Pippa Bacca, whose body was found in Gebze, Kocaeli, near Istanbul on April 12 after she disappeared while hitchhiking from Milan to Tel-Aviv.

The indictment about Mustafa Karataş, who is accused for the crimes of “rape”, “wrongful seizure”, “destroying evidence” and “voluntary manslaughter in order to evade justice”, has been sent to the Gebze High Criminal Court.

In the indictment, the prosecutor says that Karataş killed Bacca after she raped so she would not go to the police, but he was caught when he transferred the SIM card of his cellular phone to hers.

33 year old Italian artist Giuseppina Pasqualino di Marineo, known as Pippa Bacca, had gone missing on March 31.

On March 8, 2007, Marineo had left Milano with her artist friend Silvia Moro for “peace”. Leaving Milano with wedding gowns on them, the two artists were planning to reach Tel-Aviv by hitchhiking through the Balkan countries and Turkey.

The Turkish women rights defenders said the following at the activities they organized after the murder was confirmed:

“As women who are struggling to end the male violence and dominance, we know that this murder which was neither isolated and nor coincidence will be tried in a society controlled by male dominance and its justice system. Perhaps the rapist will receive the maximum sentence since this particular rape was so hated and well publicized, but as women and feminists, our  concerns are still very much alive and will stay as they are.”

Bacca was interred in Milan on April 19. (EÜ/EZÖ/TB)