Turkey: Amnesty International: convictions fail to bring justice in Korkmaz murder case

January 22, 2015 By administrator

Amnesty International (AI) issued a public statement on Wednesday regarding the controversial verdict in the trial of the murderers of Turkish teen protester Ali İsmail Korkmaz, saying the “convictions fail to bring justice.”

The AI statement said two police officers, Mevlüt Saldoğan and Yalçın Akbulut, were convicted for a lesser offense of “deliberately wounding and causing the death” of the 19-year-old Korkmaz. Saldoğan was sentenced to 10 years, 10 months in prison and Akbulut was sentenced to 10 years instead of facing punishment for the charge of “deliberate killing.” This charge, under which Saldoğan was prosecuted, would have carried a life sentence.

The statement stressed that a video of the police officers and civilians beating Korkmaz was shown to the court during the trial, noting that “Officer Saldoğan is seen in the video repeatedly kicking him [Korkmaz] in the head as he lay motionless on the ground after the attack.”

AI also stated that two other police officers involved in the deadly beating of Korkmaz, Şaban Gökpınar and Hüseyin Engin, were acquitted of all charges due to a “lack of evidence,” while three civilians also involved in the incident were sentenced to six years and eight months each. A fourth suspect has been sentenced to three years in jail but released from prison due to time served on remand.

The statement mentioned the numerous setbacks the Korkmaz trial was subject to, such as tampering with the CCTV evidence that recorded the attack.

“Hundreds more complaints into police violence look increasingly unlikely even to come to court,” AI said, adding that two further cases involving strong evidence of excessive police force leading to deaths during the Gezi Park protests remain unresolved.

The organization elaborated on these cases by saying the trial concerning the death of Abdullah Cömert, who was hit by a tear gas canister in Antakya, continues, and that Turkish prosecutors have failed to identify the policeman who fired the tear gas canister that led to death of 15-year-old Berkin Elvan.

The statement concluded: “Overall, the judicial machinery has been ineffective in bringing police abuses to justice in the face of obstructiveness and failure to provide evidence by law enforcement agencies. The Turkish authorities must bring [a] swift and just conclusion to the many hundreds of complaints that are still pending and bring all those responsible for human rights abuses to justice.”

A local court handed down Saldoğan and Akbulut’s sentences on Wednesday, causing strong reactions from the victim’s family and the general public. The prosecutor was seeking up to 16 years for Akbulut on charges of willfully causing serious injury and death. The two police officers are expected to stay only two-and-a-half years in prison, as they have already spent one-and-a-half years in jail and will benefit from the law on probation.

The court’s verdict was protested by Korkmaz’s family and others present in the courtroom. “God damn such justice,” shouted the slain teen’s mother, Emel Korkmaz. “The life of a person, the life of Ali İsmail, should not have been this cheap. They are beating a 19-year-old teen to death and getting 10 years. Is this justice in this country? The whole world knows how Ali was killed. I could not watch the footage [showing Korkmaz being beaten by police]. The life of my son should not have been this cheap,” the grieving mother said.

Korkmaz, a first-year student at Eskişehir University, died of a brain hemorrhage after remaining comatose for 38 days following the incident in which he was beaten by a group of four plainclothes police officers and four civilians in the street. The incident took place during the nationwide Gezi Park protests that swept Turkey in the summer of 2013. Korkmaz attended a march in Eskişehir and fled the police, who fired tear gas and used water cannons on the peaceful demonstrators. The assailants accosted and tripped Korkmaz as he was running on a side road. The group then beat Korkmaz with bats and kicked him in the head.

The protests started over a government plan to demolish İstanbul’s Gezi Park in Taksim Square and replace it with a replica of Ottoman-era barracks. The attack on Korkmaz further stoked tensions at the time, angering protesters even more.

Turkish Police detain CNN correspondent, injure Italian journalist (Video)

June 1, 2014 By administrator

TODAYSZAMAN.COM / ISTANBUL

Riot police allegedly detained CNN’s İstanbul correspondent Ivan Watson and his crew and a freelance journalist from Italy was injured when he was hit by a tear gas canister.

According to reports, the events happened on Saturday during protests staged to mark the anniversary of last year’s massive anti-government Gezi protests.

“Turkish police detained me and my crew in the middle of a live report in Taksim Square. One officer kneed me in the butt,” Watson said in a tweet on Saturday. Other reports say that the CNN crew was not formally detained but was prevented from staying on the air.

In Ankara, freelance journalist and photographer Piero Castellano was hit in the chest by a tear gas canister fired by police, according to a report published on the news site sendika.org. The report said Castellano was in good condition.

Turkish Journalists’ Federation (TGF) on Sunday issued a statement harshly condemning attacks on members of the press covering the anniversary of the Gezi demonstrations. Its President Atila Sertel, referring to Watson’s detention on live television, said, “The police of this state do not recognize the press card issued by the Directorate General of Press and Information [BYEGM] of the Prime Ministry, recognized all around the world.” In CNN’s footage showing police intervention to Watson’s crew, Watson can be seen showing his yellow press card to the police, who continued to manhandle him.

Sertel said many members of the press had been prevented from doing their job by the police on Saturday. Sertel, who is also a member of the Press Cards Commission, said: “If this is going to go on, if reporters will be prevented from performing their duties, these press cards we carry don’t mean a thing. If that is the case, we are ready to return our press cards. On the other hand, if journalists fail to stand together on professional ethics and the freedom to perform their job, they should be ashamed.”

Saturday was May 31, the first anniversary of the broad anti-government protests that lasted for more than a month last year in many cities across Turkey that started as a sit-in protest against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s plan to build a shopping mall over Gezi Park in İstanbul.

Police cracked down heavily on protesters. At least 120 people were detained in İstanbul alone and over a dozen were injured on Saturday during police interventions in the demonstrations. So far, there have been reports of violence against only two members of the press.

Turkish police crack down on protesters on Gezi anniversary

June 1, 2014 By administrator

REUTERS / AP / / ISTANBUL

Police used tear gas and water cannon on Saturday to push back crowds of protesters who defied a warning by Turkey’s prime minister and gathered in İstanbul and Ankara on the anniversary of last year’s nationwide anti-government demonstrations.

Riot police fired tear gas on hundreds of protesters on a main pedestrian street leading to İstanbul’s main square, Taksim, following a stand-off with police. Clashes also erupted in the capital Ankara, where police used water cannons against a group of stone-throwing protesters.

Doğan new agency video footage showed police, some in plain clothes, detaining several people in the two cities.

Abdülbaki Boğa, of the Human Rights Association, told The Associated Press at least 83 people were detained and 14 people were injured in İstanbul alone.

Large numbers of police blocked access to Taksim, and news reports earlier said authorities planned to deploy some 25,000 police officers and up to 50 anti-riot water cannon vehicles around the city to thwart the demonstrations. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan warned activists to keep away from the square, saying authorities were under strict orders to prevent protests.

“I am calling on my people: don’t fall for this trap. This is not an innocent environmental action,” Erdoğan said.

In late May and June last year, hundreds of thousands of Turks took to the streets denouncing Erdoğan’s increasingly autocratic leadership and demanding more democratic freedoms. The protests were sparked by opposition to government plans to uproot trees at Taksim Square’s Gezi Park and build a shopping center.

Fanned by outrage over the often brutal reaction by police, the demonstrations soon spread to other cities and developed into Turkey’s biggest protests in decades. Thousands were wounded and at least 12 people have died in anti-government protests in the past year.

Despite the ban, hundreds of people tried to reach Taksim.

In a speech in İstanbul earlier, Erdoğan said: “If you go there, our security forces are under strict orders, they will do whatever is necessary from A to Z. You won’t be able to go to Gezi like the last time. You have to obey the laws. If you don’t, the state will do whatever is necessary.”

Ahead of the protests, CNN correspondent Ivan Watson said he was detained briefly during a live broadcast. He said that police had kneed him and that an officer later apologized.

Turkey’s association of journalists condemned his detention and called the police action “shameful.”

A report this week by the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights said that more than 5,600 demonstrators were being prosecuted for involvement in the protests while no one responsible for the violence against protesters had been sentenced.

The Turkish authorities “are actively engaging in a witch hunt against those who participated in the protests or spoke out,” said the federation’s president, Karim Lahidji.