German court jails man for "honour killing"

BERLIN, Apr 13 (Reuters) A German court sentenced a man of Turkish origin to more than nine years in prison today for the so-called ''honour killing'' of his sister last year but found two other brothers not guilty of conspiring in the murder.

The murder of 23-year-old Hatun Surucu, who was shot while standing at a bus stop in a Berlin suburb, shocked Germany and sparked intense debate about a conservative Muslim immigrant community at odds with mainstream society.

Ayhan Surucu, who had confessed to pulling the trigger, was sentenced to nine years and three months, close to the 10-year maximum allowable as he was a minor at the time of the killing.

His brothers, Mutlu and Alpaslan, who were accused of aiding him in the murder, were found not guilty.

Prosecutors said the Surucu brothers felt dishonoured by their sister, who broke with her Turkish-Kurdish family and lived an independent life with her 5-year-old son after leaving a cousin she had been forced to marry as a young girl.

The two older brothers who were acquitted rejected accusations that the family had agreed on the killing together and denied any involvement in the murder.

The case has added fuel to a simmering debate over the descendants of the mainly Turkish ''guest workers'' whose labour helped fuel Germany's post-war ''economic miracle'' but who remain in many ways foreigners in the country.

Politicians on all sides have called for greater efforts to integrate immigrants into German society, with conservatives calling for tough crackdowns including expulsion in serious cases of immigrants breaking German laws.

''So-called 'honour killings' are actually killings that bring only disgrace,'' Johannes Singhammer, family affairs spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative CDU/CSU parliamentary group said in a statement.

''All foreigners settling in Germany must be required to accept the basic values of our constitution.'' Many experts say the problems have been allowed to build up under successive governments of all parties, which for a long time acted as though foreigners would one day return home.

Germany only changed its citizenship laws under the last government of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to make it easier for German-born children of immigrants to gain citizenship but many long-time immigrants to Germany do not hold a German passport.

REUTERS SHB PM1517