Yusuf Taş, a 25-year-old waiter implicated in the killings of his wife and eight relatives, was handed down four instances of aggravated life imprisonment, five instances of life imprisonment and 37 years in prison for the murders.

Taş, who was residing in Istanbul at the time of the murders, had stormed the house where his wife Tuğba - who had filed for divorce from Taş - was staying in the southern city of Gaziantep, gunning her and three others down. He later stormed the house where his uncle and family resided and killed the entire family of five.

The incident was one of the bloodiest attacks in recent memory in Turkey involving relatives. In 2009, 44 people, mostly members of an extended family, were killed by six relatives raiding a wedding party in Bilge village in the southeastern province of Mardin. Yusuf Taş was captured 55 days after the murders as he was about to board a bus to the western city of İzmir.