Indictment into Killing of Ali Hemdan by a Police Officer

* Source: evrensel.net

Click to read the article in Turkish

An indictment has been issued into the killing of Syrian refugee Ali El Hemdan by a police officer in Adana province. According to the indictment, there was no chase between the two and the officer put the cartridge in the barrel after Hemdan turned his face towards him.

As reported by Volkan Pekal from daily Evrensel, a lawsuit has been filed against suspect police officer F.K. on charge of "wilful killing."

'Police officer did not stagger'

The video footage added to the indictment has refuted the allegation of the police officer that he staggered at the moment of incident. When the footage was examined, it was seen that there was no chase between F.K. and Hemdan and F.K. did not stagger during the incident.

According to the indictment, police officer F.K. put the cartridge in the barrel of his weapon after Hemdan turned his face towards him.

Based on the records of the cameras with full view to the scene of incident, the indictment has detailed the incident as follows:

"It is understood that Ali El Hemdan walked along the street and the suspect police officer was walking around 15-20 meters behind him; Ali El Hemdan turned his face towards the officer shortly afterwards and walked back; in the meantime, the suspect police officer put the cartridge into the barrel of the weapon that he was holding, he aimed and shot at the deceased and Ali El Hemdan collapsed to the ground at the same time.

"The defense of the police officer does not comply with the camera footage in any way. Based on both the statement of the witness and the camera footage, it is understood that the police officer did not stagger or fall on the ground and there was no chasing-running between the two."

In the statement of the witness S.D., who said that s/he saw the incident from the balcony, it was indicated that Ali El Hemdan entered the street and walked along, the police officer came after him and told him to stop, Ali El Hemdan turned his face towards the police officer and the officer pointed his weapon at Ali El Hemdan and opened fire.

'Report of criminal police laboratory not objective'

Attorney Tugay Bek has also indicated that the defense statement of police officer F.K. does not reflect the truth. Referring to the report issued by the Adana Criminal Police Laboratory and added to the case file, Bek has described the report as "scandalous."

Attorney Bek has briefly stated the following about the issue:

"Having examined the shirt that Ali El Hemdan was wearing at the moment of incident, police laboratory determined that his death was caused by a ricochet [a shot rebounding off a surface]. However, it is impossible to draw such a conclusion by making an examination on clothes. Such a speculation can be made only if the bullet is deformed and as a result of the post-mortem examination to be done on Ali El Hemdan's body.

"The Adana Criminal Police Laboratory has issued such a report that has nothing to do with being scientific and objective, it acted with a motive to fabricate evidence in favor of police officer F.K." (AÖ/SD)