Two brothers, Turkish nationals Gürkan and Ismail U., are on trial for allegedly killing two young women in an illegal street race in the German city of Ludwigsburg, with Gürken the suspected driver of the vehicle that struck the women.
Notably, both men have already been convicted 26 times for various serious crimes.
In the Stuttgart court, Gürkan is on trial for murder for reportedly driving his Mercedes S-Class into the women at 150 km/h. The prosecutor’s office accuses the men of conducting a street race on March 20, at which point Gürkane slammed into the two young women, 22-year-old Selin K. and 23-year-old Merve K., as they drove their Ford Focus out of a gas station. The women were thrown into a tree and died at the scene.
According to Bild newspaper, Gürkan U. has 14 convictions. Already in school, he was arrested for punching, choking, and sexually abusing his classmates. He has multiple traffic and violent offenses on his record, including rape, fraud, theft with a weapon, driving without a license, hit-and-run, and violating insurance laws. He also tried to sell €65,000 worth of cocaine to an undercover officer. Gürkan lost his driver’s license in 2015, but two years later, he got it back and was back on the road.
His brother, Ismail U., is on trial for attempted murder and was previously arrested for drunk driving in 2018, when he sped away from the police with a blood alcohol level of 1.4 per mille, blew through a red light, smashed multiple vehicles, and blew through a police trap, nearly hitting an officer. Officers fired shots at him during the incident, but he continued speeding away even with two tires blown out.
Amazingly, he only received a two-year suspended sentence. He had to give up his license twice and only received a two-month suspension before the deadly speeding accident in Ludwigsburg.
Ismail U. also has a long criminal record for rape, extortion, various traffic violations, drunk driving, weapons possession, assault, trespassing, and other offenses.
