Court cuts sentence for Turkish man who stabbed Leeds fans

A Turkish man found guilty of stabbing two English football fans to death in April 2000 received a reduced sentence of six years and eight months in his retrial today, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.

A second suspect, Suleyman Gokhan Guven, who had received a three-month sentence in the first trial, was given a 10-year sentence in the retrial for stabbing Christopher Loftus and Kevin Speight, Anatolia said.

Ali Umit Demir, the main suspect, was initially sentenced to 15 years in prison, but an appeals court overturned that decision in 2003, and ordered a new investigation and retrial for him, Guven and five other suspects.

The Istanbul court reduced Demir’s sentence, arguing that more than one person was involved in the killings, that the person who dealt the killer blow had not been identified and because the victims “had provoked” the attack, Anatolia reported.

The court established that Guven had attacked the Leeds fans even though he had no intention of killing them, Anatolia said.

The two were killed after street clashes in Istanbul the night before Leeds United played Turkey’s Galatasaray in the second leg of the UEFA Cup semi-finals.