ISTANBUL – A Turkish court has charged a man with murder and rape over an attack on two Japanese women that killed one and badly wounded the other, the local Hurriyet daily reported Thursday.
The court in the central city of Nevsehir charged Mustafa Volkan Dilaver, 27, with stabbing tourist Mai Kurihara to death and sexually assaulting her dead body on Monday.
He was also charged with sexual assault and attempted murder in the case of her traveling companion, Hoshie Teramatsu, according to a statement from the prosecutor cited by Hurriyet.
The two women, both 22, were attacked Monday while hiking in the Zemi valley in the popular tourist region of Cappadocia, famous for its natural “fairy chimney” rock formations.
Hurriyet also reported that Japanese journalists were roughed up outside the court by a group of the suspect’s supporters when they tried to photograph and film him being taken to jail after Wednesday’s indictment.
Riot police were sent to push back the assailants, the daily said.
Police had arrested two suspects Tuesday after Teramatsu identified one of them in photographs shown to her by investigators at the hospital where she is being treated, the Anatolia news agency reported.
Cappadocia, a UNESCO World Heritage site visited by thousands of tourists every year, is famous for its lunar landscape of cone-shaped volcanic rock formations and rock-carved underground cities.
