Disabled Gerçek Receives Longer Sentence Than Shooter Policemen

Bakırköy 9^th Assize Court concluded the case of Ferhat Gerçek, a young man who became paralyzed in 2007 due to police fire at the age of 17. 

It also turned out that he received longer prison sentence than his shooters concerning the incident that led to his paralysis. He was convicted of “damaging a police vehicle and insulting policemen”. 

Not a convict but a victim 

“Ferhat Gerçek is the victim of the incident. Therefore we requested his acquittal and the conviction of policemen. The investigation did not continue according to procedures. There was not even an investigation at the crime scene. No witnesses were heard,” advocate Aycan Çiçek told bianet. 

The court, however, decided to abandon the announcement of verdict. 

Policemen benefited sentence reductions  

Policemen Cengiz Çalış, Yavuz Özer, Aydın Özdere, Hasan Bayraktar, Emre Taşkın, Can Koçbülbül and Muzaffer Ünal each received 2.5 years of prison.  

“The defendants put the victim into a life-threatening situation and caused him to suffer from a life-long condition,” the verdict said.   

It also underlined that policemen acted with a “possible” purpose. However, they still benefited sentence reductions due to the “possible effect of sentence on the defendants”. 

What happened before?

On 7 October 2007, distributors of the Yürüyüş magazine were beaten by the police in Yenibosna (Istanbul). Ferhat (17) was shot at this back when he was trying to run away.

A Bakırköy district court opened a trial against police officers Cengiz Çalış, Yavuz Özer, Aydın Özdere, Hasan Bayraktar, Emre Taşkın, Can Koçbülbül and Muzaffer Ünal. The police officers are facing imprisonment of up 10.5 years on charges of "misconduct of office".

Ferhat, on the other hand, faced 15 years of prison under allegations of "opposing the law on meetings and demonstrations", "resistance to obstruct duty", "insult of a public official" and "intentional property damage".

The bullet shell and Gerçek's t-shirt were sent to the Forensic Medicine Institute in order to determine the weapon the bullet was shot from and to be able to proof that Gerçek was shot from a short distance.

However, both the bullet and the t-shirt got lost at the Forensic Medicine Institute and were not included in the case file. 

The court had applied to the police to appoint an "expert" for the investigation of the footage.

The court rejected the policemen to be tried under “attempted homicide”, ruling that Gerçek was shot as they fired in the air. 

“We took his legs. We will also take his arms,” suspect policemen said when faced with Ferhat Gerçek during a hearing in 2011.

An additional trial was opened against Gerçek regarding a compensation claim for the "cost of repair" of the police cars that were damaged on the day of the incident.

The General Police Directorate affiliated with the Ministry of the Interior claimed TL 2,242 (€ 900) in compensation from Gerçek and four other people to cover the cost of damage that occurred at two police cars when they allegedly threw stones at the cars. (AS/BM)