Trial for non-Terrorist Killing of Sarai Sierra

Trial for non-Terrorist Killing of Sarai Sierra

Obvious motive is not because he's high or looking for love, but looking for Jihad.

update to main: Syrian Rebel Ziya Tasali Killed American Woman in Turkey
found in Timeline Of Terror and Not Terrorism

January 31, 2013 Istanbul-based Association For Families With Lost Relatives handed out flyers for missing mother Sarai Sierra in Istanbul. On March 18 homeless scrap-paper collector Ziya Tasali, 46 confessed to bludgeoing 33-year-old American tourist Sarai Sierra to death in Istanbul. He denied trying to rape her in a half hour struggle in which he claims she struck him with her cellphone after he got angry that she would not kiss him. The body of the Staten Island New York woman was found in the ruins of Istanbul’s old city ten days after the attack amid Turkish press speculation she was a spy or a smuggler. The man said he had sniffed glue before he attacked the petite 33-year-old. The suspect escaped to Syria where he was fought with the rebels in Syria, but returned to Turkey when he was wounded and captured by authorities.

Alternate theory: Claim that he was high on glue, and was angry about kissing is just a cover story. That he fought with Syrian rebels indicates he is also a militant jihadist with an obvious motive to kill Americans using crime as a cover

h/t - tracked down from Two Japanese Stabbed, One Killed in Turkey in September 2013

.Update

September 3, 2013
http://news.msn.com/crime-justice/turkish-man-accused-of-killing-nyc-woman-on-trial?stay=1
9/3/13  By Suzan Fraser of Associated Press
Ziya Tasali has admitted to killing Sarai Sierra while he was high on paint thinner fumes, but denies sexually assaulting her.
 He had been on the run since Sierra's body was found and was believed to be in hiding in Syria.


"I was sitting beneath the walls. I had sniffed paint thinner [vapors] and was high," Dogan quoted him as telling the court in Istanbul. "I approached her and wanted to kiss her. But she hit me with her phone between my two eyebrows. I pushed her and she fell on the ground," he said.

.Facts

• Tasali was arrested near the Syrian border in March.
• Assaulted by woman:  "I approached her and wanted to kiss her. But she hit me with her phone between my two eyebrows. I pushed her and she fell on the ground," he said.
• Confession: admitted fatally hitting Sierra with a rock but disputed charges of sexual assault.
• Drug cover story:  I had sniffed paint thinner [vapors] and was high,"
• Occupation: described himself as a scrap-paper collector with no fixed address.
• Syrian rebel fighter, came back wounded