Pregnant wife posed for clifftop selfie with husband - seconds later she was dead
Hakan Aysal, 40, pushed his wife Semra Aysal, 32, off a 1,000 foot cliff at a viral beauty spot - just moments after taking some smiling photographs with her
A calculating husband who shoved his pregnant wife off a cliff after snapping a selfie with her is languishing behind bars.
Hakan Aysal, 40, pushed his 32 year old wife Semra Aysal off a 1,000 foot cliff at the picturesque Butterfly Valley, in the Turkish province of Mugla - just moments after capturing some photographs with her.
Fethiye High Criminal Court heard the horrifying details of how victim Semra - who was seven months pregnant - was cruelly killed by her husband in a selfish bid to cash in on a life insurance policy he had taken out.
The court heard that he cunningly lured his wife - who had a fear of heights - to the very edge of the sheer drop under the guise of taking a selfie with her, before ruthlessly pushing her off it.
The couple spent around three hours sitting on the slope before the killer pushed his wife off the cliff when there was no one else around, according to infoBalkans.
Suspicions were raised that Aysal had shoved Semra off the rock face after photos of the couple were circulated in news reports, which triggered the memory of another holidaymaker.
Chilling video footage was shot by the passer-by which shows Aysal and his wife scrambling down a rocky landscape to the edge.
Following the horror incident, the husband then shockingly tried to pocket a £40,000 insurance payout from a policy he took out a short time before she died.
However, police were tipped off about the suspicious death when Aysal tried to claim the money - mere days after his wife perished.
Bank reports also showed he had taken out seven loans in his wife's name and, after her death in June 2018, had set off on a jet-set life of luxury, travelling the country and staying at VIP locations.
An indictment prepared by the prosecutors against Aysal for "premeditated murder" was accepted by the Fethiye High Criminal Court in 2022. Part of the charge read: "In line with his plan, the defendant took out personal accident insurance on behalf of his wife, with a guarantee of 400,000 liras [£18,576.00], with the sole beneficiary being himself".
The 40 year old was informed at an earlier hearing that he must serve at least 30 years before he can be considered for release.
During the trial, witnesses described how Aysal was 'completely calm' as he flagged down help.
Sait Erturk, a passing motorist who was stopped by the husband, described him as 'carefree'. He added that the killer did not join the search party to look for his wife's body.
Mr Erturk told the court: "I was driving there and when I saw someone was waving at me, and I stopped. Hakan came and said that his wife had fallen down the cliff.
"We immediately got out of the car and started looking for her, but we couldn't see where she would have landed from where we were.
"We tried to get closer to the edge for a better look. Hakan did not come with us down there. We stayed there until the gendarmerie arrived.
"Hakan was very carefree and calm. He was not acting like a man whose wife had just fallen off a cliff."
The killer is currently serving a life sentence and will only be eligible for parole after serving 30 years. However, just after he was jailed, it was reported that he was already planning for his release by trying to rake in a raft of cash with legal cases against his critics.
Despite being jailed, in 2022 he attempted to sue 200 people who allegedly insulted him online. According to Turkish media, the convicted murderer was after ₺5,000 (£269) for every person who has allegedly insulted him on social media.