Ahmet Yıldız Murder Case Started. Fugitive Defendant: Yıldız's Father

Ahmet Yıldız, student at the Department of Physics at Marmara University, was shot dead in Üsküdar (a district of Istanbul on the Anatolian side) on 15 July 2008.

The first hearing of the Ahmet Yıdız case took place in Istanbul at the Üsküdar Courthouse 1^st High Criminal Court yesterday (8 September). It was the hearing of Yahya Yıldız, the victim's father, who is alleged to have killed his son because he was homosexual. In absentia, Yıldız is under charge of buying unlicensed firearms with ammunition, carrying and possessing them, premeditatedly killing of people and killing and injuring close relatives.

The court accepted witness Ümmühan Darama's request to join the case. Fırat Söyle, assigned council for Ahmet Yıldız, turned down an intervener request brought forward by the Turkish LGBT organization Lambdaistanbul by claiming that the organization itself was not negatively affected by the crime. The second hearing of the case is scheduled for 23 December.

Joint plaintiff Darama threatened on the phone

In yesterday's hearing Darama testified that he was close to the site of crime at the time of the incident, sitting in front of his coffee shop 'Tuana Café'. When he heard gunshots he escaped to the inside. Only after going inside Darama realized that he was injured. When he looked back he saw a black Mercedes and a yellow cab, but he was not able to see who fired the gunshots.

Talking to bianet after the hearing Darama said that considering his involvement into the court case he had been warned and threatened on the phone in order not to get involved. After the murder Darama's café had been covered with gunshots so the owner was forced to hand it over to somebody else. Darama stated "I suffered from this court case materialistically and psychologically."

Prior to the incident victim Yıldız had mentioned that members of his family might kill him because of his homosexuality. Yıdız's boyfriend explained to bianet: "One year before Yıldız had told his family that he was gay. He had been threatened by his father and other family members". On the grounds of these allegations he applied to the prosecutor's office. (EG/EÜ/VK)