A court in Turkey overturned the acquittal of the fiance of femactivist Anastasia Emelyanova in her murder case

The regional court of Turkish Erzurum overturned the acquittal of the fiance of Russian femactivist Anastasia Emelyanova, Mohammad Nizar Arnabeh, who was accused of her murder. Mediazona reported this with reference to the court decision of November 12.

The appeal board sent the case for a new trial, as it considered the complaint against the acquittal to be justified, according to the document, which the publication has seen.

Human rights activist and friend of Emelyanova Varvara Mikhailova linked the reversal of the acquittal with the desire of the investigation to hide their own violations. The girl wrote on Facebook that the accusation is based on the confession given by Nizar Arnabeh. Mikhailova believes that the man did this under torture.

“Closer to the verdict, I began to seriously doubt that the prosecution had any evidence at all <...>, and then it seemed that Nizar had an alibi for approximately the entire period when the crime could have occurred,” Mikhailova said.

She explained that the defense's appeal is based on an analysis of video recordings from street cameras, which were not considered during open court sessions. According to the human rights activist, if everything in the video from the cameras is as the defense claims, then Nizar Arnabeh could not have killed Emelyanova.

“If everything on these recordings is as the defense says, then it turns out that Nizar came home so late that he could only have time to find Nastya, who died as a result of a monstrously ridiculous accident, and try to somehow help her,” Mikhailova wrote.

A Turkish court acquitted Mohammad Nizar Arnabeh in the murder of Anastasia Emelyanova at the end of May. According to the party representing the interests of the femactivist, the basis for acquittal was “lack of evidence.”

According to the prosecution, Nizar Arnabeh beat Emelyanova and cut her leg with a piece of glass - she died a few hours later from blood loss. During the investigation, the man changed his testimony several times - he either confessed to the murder, or denied his involvement. Later, in court, he denied all charges.