Syrian activist and daughter found murdered in Istanbul home

Syrian opposition activist Orouba Barakat, 60, and her journalist daughter Halla, 22, were found dead in their apartment in Istanbul, according to police

Syrian activist and daughter found murdered in Istanbul home (Photo: Daily Sabah)
Syrian activist and daughter found murdered in Istanbul home (Photo: Daily Sabah)

A Syrian opposition activist and her journalist daughter were found dead in their apartment, in Istanbul, according to the Istanbul police department.

The bodies of Orouba Barakat, 60, and her daughter Halla, 22, were found overnight in Istanbul’s Uskudar neighbourhood in the Asian sector of the city.

According to Turkish media reports, Orouba was in the process of investigating alleged torture in prisons, which were being run by the Syrian government. Initially, reports said, she lived in Britian, then the United Arab Emirates and then she moved to Istanbul.

“The hand of tyranny and injustice assassinated my sister Doctor Orouba and her daughter Halla in their apartment in Istanbul”, said Orouba’s sister Shaza, on Facebook, adding that they were stabbed to death.

“Orouba wrote headlines in the first page and she pursued criminals and exposed them. Her name and her daughter’s name, Hala, now made first page headlines”, she added.

Since 2011, the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, almost three million Syrian refugees have made Turkey their home, many of them opponents of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.