Prosecutors will again demand life sentence for murder of four family members

The Public Prosecution Service (OM) will appeal in the case around Onur K., who was convicted last week of killing his two children, his wife and his mother in Etten-Leur last year. The OM will demand life in prison against the 34-year-old man from Breda instead of the 30 years he was sentenced to last week, Omroep Brabant reports.

The court convicted K. of one count of murder and three of manslaughter. According to the court, K. strangled his 2-year-old daughter Denis, 6-year-old son Atakan, and 31-year-old wife Gulcan to death at the end of March 2020. He then called his 65-year-old mother Hikmet to come home to her house on Dassenburcht in Etten-Leur, where the family had lived for a while, and killed her too. K. had fallen into financial difficulties, partly due to his gambling addiction.

The court only considered murder proven in Hikmet's death. There was not enough evidence to prove premeditation in Gulcan and the children's deaths, the court ruled.

The Public Prosecutor disagrees and believes K. should be convicted of murder in all four cases. And even if he isn't, life in prison is the appropriate sentence, the OM believes.