Gabonese student dies in Turkey: man detained

A view of the city of Karabük (Illustration image). © Craig Pershouse/Getty Images

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2 min

Two weeks after the discovery of the body of Jeannah Danys Dinabongho Ibouanga in northern Turkey, a suspect was detained on Monday, April 10.

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With our correspondent in Istanbul, Anne Andlauer

The investigation into Dina's death – as her relatives called her – appears to be much more complex than what the Karabük prosecutor's office had initially suggested, namely a death by drowning without signs of assault. The body of the 17-year-old student was found on March 26 in a river, not far from the university of this northern city where she was studying mechanical engineering. Since then, eight people have been taken into custody. The main suspect is a 55-year-old man who has been in police custody four times since 3 April.

Thanks to surveillance cameras, the police know that the student ran out of her home on the night of March 25 to 26. She ran barefoot for several hundred meters before getting into the suspect's car. According to him, the student, whom he claims not to know, was injured in the face and hand. She allegedly asked him to take her to the hospital, but then jumped out of the moving vehicle. Inconsistencies in the man's account, as well as elements of his past, eventually led a court to incarcerate him.

Many grey areas

But many grey areas remain, as well as contradictions between several witnesses. One said he heard screams that night in the building across from hers and saw people trying to hold Dina home before letting her out.

After a first autopsy in Karabük, the body of the young woman was sent to the Istanbul Institute of Forensic Medicine. The final report has not yet been published. A brief rally, attended by about fifty people, was held on Monday, April 10, in the evening, in Istanbul to "demand justice for Dina". Turkey, whose President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is engaged in intense diplomatic activity in Africa, welcomes more than 61,000 African students to its universities, according to the Turkish government.

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Read on on the same topics:

• Gabon
• Turkey