A Turkish man who walked free from prison despite murdering two wives has been arrested for killing his third wife in a case that activists say starkly illustrates how the Turkish authorities fail to protect women at risk as femicide remains rampant in the country.

Last week police found the body of Mutlu Menekse, 48, in a decrepit building in the western province of Manisa and quickly detained Necati Akpinar as the sole suspect, acting on a tip-off from witnesses. In his questioning by police, the 58-year-old confessed to fatally hitting Menekse in the head with a blunt object during an argument, officials from the Manisa Bar Association who follow the case told Al-Monitor. The man described Menekse as his wife, the sources said, though the couple had had only a religious wedding ceremony, a practice widespread but not officially recognized in Turkey.

The case triggered public outrage and sent women's rights activists up in arms as it emerged that Akpinar had already been sentenced to life twice for murdering two spouses in a row. He and Menekse had reportedly begun to live together only about a month before.

Akpinar’s story speaks volumes of why femicides remain rampant in Turkey despite the introduction of legal measures to protect women over the years. Akpinar was granted release on probation in 2020 under a law to reduce jail populations during the COVID-19 pandemic. He was able to benefit from the law because he had been transferred to an open prison, where well-behaved inmates are generally held, while serving his second sentence. He had stabbed his second wife to death after injuring her with a hot iron in 2003, according to Turkish press reports. Only three years earlier, he had walked free under an amnesty law after stabbing his first wife to death in 1984.