An Afghan mother who the Turkish police refused to help when she was repeatedly beaten by her husband because they were not legally married has reportedly used an axe to kill him in his sleep.

Fazilet Azimi, 28, is facing aggravated murder charges for killing husband Hasan Ozbek, 57, with an axe as he slept at the end of November.

Local media said that her partner’s increasingly violent attacks had prompted her to go to the police more than once.

However, because they were only married in a mosque and not legally married in a registry office, the police told her there was nothing they could do.

Azimi said the knowledge that her partner was immune to prosecution only made his violent rages even worse, and that she feared for her life and the lives of her children after he also attacked them, according to reports.

On the night he died, he was sleeping in the district of Zeytinburnu in the north-western Turkish city of Istanbul, and his wife came into the room and hit him over the head 15 times with an axe.

She then waited beside the bed for 90 minutes before calling police.

Azimi has now appeared in the Bakirkoy 13th High Criminal Court on charges of aggravated murder.

Asking for leniency, she said that life with her husband was one of constant violence, adding: “I went to the police twice because of his violence. They just noted my name, they did not take any action. They said ‘you are not officially married, we cannot do anything’.

“When my husband heard this, he started to beat me even more. I have a five-year-old son and an 11-year-old daughter. I was afraid that he would do something to them.”

The couple’s two children meanwhile have been taken into care.

The case continues.