By Tim Binnall
In a strange divorce case recently settled in Turkey, a husband claimed that his wife tried to kill him using witchcraft involving magically charmed amulets. Married in 2004, the couple's lengthy union reportedly crumbled when the man saw his spouse inexplicably cutting her hair as he got out of bed one morning. When he inquired about her actions, his wife chillingly replied that she was performing a magical spell that would cause him to fall ill and die. Stunned by her response, which was apparently serious rather than offered in jest, the man scoured their home and found 5 or 6 amulets stashed in strategic locations around the residence.
Suspicious about the situation, the husband surreptitiously followed his wife when she left their house and soon discovered that she had been cheating on him. The double-whammy of infidelity and alleged attempted murder via witchcraft understandably prompted the heartbroken man to file for divorce. In the legal filings, he smartly included the charmed amulets as proof of his bizarre account. For her part, his wife denied dabbling in black magic and instead insisted that her husband was particularly "stingy," prompting her to lament that "this life has become unbearable to me." In dueling filings, the man demanded around $15,000, and his wife requested approximately $4,300 for their respective pain and suffering from the marriage falling apart.
Amazingly, during the divorce proceedings, the court enlisted an expert to examine the mysterious amulets and make a determination as to their purported powers. Confounded by the curious writing on the pieces, that individual turned to an imam for insight and was told that the text was, indeed, a magic spell and that the precise text could not be presented during the case because it could then be repeated by any nefarious individual with access to the public record. Despite the seemingly strong argument that man had been bewitched, the court ultimately ruled that both parties were at fault for the marriage failing and, thus, neither side received the compensation they had requested.