Demonstrators protest violence against women near university of murdered student

ISTANBUL – About 15,000 people marched in a southern Turkish city Wednesday in remembrance of a student whose murder last week after an attempted rape has galvanized public outrage about violence against women.

Twenty-year-old Ozgecan Aslan's body was found Friday burned in a riverbed. She was last seen two days earlier on a minibus in Mersin, where the demonstrators gathered Wednesday. Turkish media has reported that the minibus driver, Suphi Altindoken, later confessed that he killed her and mutilated her body after she tried to fend off his sexual attack. He was arrested along with his father and one other man.

The case has led to mass demonstrations, an outpouring of anger on social media and allegations that the ruling Justice and Development Party has not done enough to protect women.