Paying money to prevent retaliation
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Hürriyet
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Temmuz 08, 2009 00:00
ISTANBUL - Blood money is compensation murderers or their families pay to their victims’ families in order to prevent blood feuds between them. Although this tradition prevents many vendettas, it does not offer an escape from law suits in Turkey. On the Arabian Peninsula, it differs
Hundreds of murders are committed in Turkey every year as part of honor killings and clashes between feudal clans, and to prevent them from escalating into long-running retaliatory blood battles, blood money is paid to the victims’ relatives.
Families of the perpetrator pay blood money to the victims’ relatives to prevent the victim’s relatives’ from retaliating in kind or filing compensatory lawsuits. In Turkey, this does not prevent the prosecutor from filing civil lawsuits against the murderers but long-term vendettas between families and clans are avoided by the payment of blood money, usually ranging between 10,000 and 250,000 Turkish Liras. The lawsuits may only be dropped if the death is deemed involuntary manslaughter and the victim’s family does not press charges for compensation. In Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia, however, the murderer can walk free just by paying the blood money.
The tradition of blood money, known as "diyyat," started in old time Arabia to avoid vendettas based on the understanding of "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," or "qissas." In earlier times, if a Muslim killed another Muslim by accident, he would offer camels in exchange for the life he took. The calculations were based on the price of 100 camels, which equaled the loss of a life. The loss of a foot or an eye would cost the price of 50 female camels. A broken bone or tooth equaled five camels. Today, blood money rates in Saudi Arabia are 100,000 Riyals for a Muslim man, and 50,000 for a Muslim woman or a Christian. If the deceased is Hindu, the rate drops to 6,666 Riyals.
Similarly, in Iran, the amount of blood money differs according to the gender and religion of the victim. Blood money is paid not only for murders, but also for events that result in death such as fires and traffic accidents.
This system is also applied by heads of state in Arab countries. Muammar al-Gaddafi, the president of Libya, tops the list for the amount of blood money paid after the $2.7 billion he paid to the relatives of the victims of the Lockerby plane crash. Another incident of blood money paid by a state was when the U.S. government paid $40,000 to relatives of those who died in a raid in Afghanistan. The U.S. government did not officially call it blood money.
Blood money for revenge
In Egypt, a man got into a fight with his neighbor about a stairway he wanted to build at the rear entrance of his house and killed him. The blood money paid to prevent retaliatory attacks was $12,000, but the cousins of the deceased bought three automatic weapons with this money and shot the killer. In Libya, a freighter carrying flour from Turkey was unloading its cargo and a snapped cable caused the death of a dockworker from Chad. The two Turkish captains of the freighter were held responsible and arrested. On the recommendation of their Libyan lawyer, the captains paid 55,000 dinars to the widow of the dockworker. However, the prosecutor of the case did not let the accused leave the country, because on the paper confirming the widow received the money, the term "money," and not "blood money" was used.
Western countries have also seen the concept of blood money enter their societies with the arrival of Muslim immigrants. In Denmark, following a Muslim killing another Muslim, an imam ruled that blood money must be paid, which led to a debate across the country. Danish daily Politiken argued that there is no difference between compensation in the West and blood money in the East, and as a result received harsh criticism.
Some examples from Turkey are as follows: Two families in Harran in southeastern Turkey had a falling out after someone was accidentally shot and killed. The matter was only settled after 16,000 liras was paid as blood money. Also, Şükrü Giresun in Istanbul lost his wife and daughter in a traffic accident and decided not to file a criminal complaint against the driver responsible after accepting 20,000 liras as blood money. In Esenyurt, Istanbul, a minibus carrying people from Akören village crashed into a trailer truck and 17 of the 26 passengers were killed.
The company owning the truck paid 460,000 liras to the relatives of the deceased for them to not to file compensation cases. Musa Büyük, a football player, paid 240,000 liras to the family of a child whose death he caused in a traffic accident seven years ago. In Küçükçekmece, Istanbul, the father of a 4-year-old child did not file a criminal complaint after his son was killed by a stray bullet and stated that he will receive blood money from the shooter.
Families of the perpetrator pay blood money to the victims’ relatives to prevent the victim’s relatives’ from retaliating in kind or filing compensatory lawsuits. In Turkey, this does not prevent the prosecutor from filing civil lawsuits against the murderers but long-term vendettas between families and clans are avoided by the payment of blood money, usually ranging between 10,000 and 250,000 Turkish Liras. The lawsuits may only be dropped if the death is deemed involuntary manslaughter and the victim’s family does not press charges for compensation. In Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia, however, the murderer can walk free just by paying the blood money.
The tradition of blood money, known as "diyyat," started in old time Arabia to avoid vendettas based on the understanding of "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," or "qissas." In earlier times, if a Muslim killed another Muslim by accident, he would offer camels in exchange for the life he took. The calculations were based on the price of 100 camels, which equaled the loss of a life. The loss of a foot or an eye would cost the price of 50 female camels. A broken bone or tooth equaled five camels. Today, blood money rates in Saudi Arabia are 100,000 Riyals for a Muslim man, and 50,000 for a Muslim woman or a Christian. If the deceased is Hindu, the rate drops to 6,666 Riyals.
Similarly, in Iran, the amount of blood money differs according to the gender and religion of the victim. Blood money is paid not only for murders, but also for events that result in death such as fires and traffic accidents.
This system is also applied by heads of state in Arab countries. Muammar al-Gaddafi, the president of Libya, tops the list for the amount of blood money paid after the $2.7 billion he paid to the relatives of the victims of the Lockerby plane crash. Another incident of blood money paid by a state was when the U.S. government paid $40,000 to relatives of those who died in a raid in Afghanistan. The U.S. government did not officially call it blood money.
Blood money for revenge
In Egypt, a man got into a fight with his neighbor about a stairway he wanted to build at the rear entrance of his house and killed him. The blood money paid to prevent retaliatory attacks was $12,000, but the cousins of the deceased bought three automatic weapons with this money and shot the killer. In Libya, a freighter carrying flour from Turkey was unloading its cargo and a snapped cable caused the death of a dockworker from Chad. The two Turkish captains of the freighter were held responsible and arrested. On the recommendation of their Libyan lawyer, the captains paid 55,000 dinars to the widow of the dockworker. However, the prosecutor of the case did not let the accused leave the country, because on the paper confirming the widow received the money, the term "money," and not "blood money" was used.
Western countries have also seen the concept of blood money enter their societies with the arrival of Muslim immigrants. In Denmark, following a Muslim killing another Muslim, an imam ruled that blood money must be paid, which led to a debate across the country. Danish daily Politiken argued that there is no difference between compensation in the West and blood money in the East, and as a result received harsh criticism.
Some examples from Turkey are as follows: Two families in Harran in southeastern Turkey had a falling out after someone was accidentally shot and killed. The matter was only settled after 16,000 liras was paid as blood money. Also, Şükrü Giresun in Istanbul lost his wife and daughter in a traffic accident and decided not to file a criminal complaint against the driver responsible after accepting 20,000 liras as blood money. In Esenyurt, Istanbul, a minibus carrying people from Akören village crashed into a trailer truck and 17 of the 26 passengers were killed.
The company owning the truck paid 460,000 liras to the relatives of the deceased for them to not to file compensation cases. Musa Büyük, a football player, paid 240,000 liras to the family of a child whose death he caused in a traffic accident seven years ago. In Küçükçekmece, Istanbul, the father of a 4-year-old child did not file a criminal complaint after his son was killed by a stray bullet and stated that he will receive blood money from the shooter.