A court in the southern city of Adana sentenced Çilem Doğan to 15 years in prison for shooting her husband Hasan Karabulut to death in a case that has drawn attention to the plight of victims of domestic abuse.

Doğan, 24, made headlines when she appeared among police officers following her arrest in June 2015, with a T-shirt reading "Dear Past, Thanks For All The Lessons," and posing with her thumbs up. The young woman repeatedly sought police protection against her abusive husband and due to his threats, retracted several complaints she made before the murder, Doğan told the police.

The chief judge in the case voted for her acquittal on the grounds that she acted in self-defense, while other judges applied sentence reduction, common in the murder of women by their spouses showing good conduct during legal proceedings, such as showing respect to the court or under the clause of "unjust provocation." Her initial sentence of aggravated life term for manslaughter was first commuted to 18 years for "unjust provocation" and then to 15 years for good conduct during the hearings.

Çilem Doğan told the court during her final hearing that she had no option but to shoot her husband, who she accused of forcing her into prostitution. "I walked many times in the halls of this courthouse with bruises on my body, filing for protection. I wasn't left any options [other than killing]," she said.