Shocking reason husband pushed pregnant wife off cliff

A husband who pushed his pregnant wife off a 1000ft-high cliff moments after taking a smiling selfie with her has been sentenced to life in prison.

Hakan Aysal, 40, shoved 32-year-old victim Semra Aysal off the beauty spot ledge in Butterfly Valley, in the Turkish province of Mugla, in June 2018.

A court heard how Semra – who was seven months pregnant – had been killed so her husband could cash in on a life insurance policy he had taken out on her.

This week a court rejected a last-minute insanity plea by Aysal after medics confirmed he was of sound mind when he carried out the killing.

Aysal had lured his wife to the very edge of the sheer drop on the pretext of taking a selfie and then shoved her off it, the court was told.

Chilling video footage shot by a passer-by at the cliff top shows Aysal and his wife – who was afraid of heights – scrambling down a rocky landscape to the edge.

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Husband 'carefree' after wife's death

A witness told the court he was flagged down by Aysal as he was driving nearby and described him as "completely calm".

Sait Erturk said Aysal told him his wife had fallen off the cliff but did not join the search for her body.

"We immediately got out of the car and started looking for her, but we couldn't see where she would have landed from where we were," Mr Erturk said.

"We tried to get closer to the edge for a better look. Hakan did not come with us down there. We stayed there until the gendarmerie arrived.

"Hakan was very carefree and calm. He was not acting like a man whose wife had just fallen off a cliff."

An earlier hearing had jailed Asyal for at least 30 years for the brutal killing but he challenged the verdict, claiming he had been mentally disturbed.

Now medics from the 4th Specialisation Department of Forensic Medicine have confirmed that Aysal was in good mental health and his aggravated life sentence has been upheld, meaning he will serve at least 30 years in prison.

His sentence was confirmed at the Fethiye High Criminal Court on 25th October.

- Australscope

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