Court Gives Decision of Insistence in Festus Okey Case

After the Supreme Court of Appeals 1^st Penal Chamber’s procedural decision to overturn the four years two months prison sentence to police officer Cengiz Yıldız in the Festus Okey case, İstanbul 21^st High Criminal Court gave a decision of insistence. 

Lawyer Ömer Kavili told bianet that the case file would go to The Supreme Court of Appeals Sentence Board and that the final verdict would be decided there. 

The Supreme Court of Appeals 1^st Penal Chamber had found faulty the rejection of Festus Okey’s family’s lawyers’ request and returned the case.

A tactic: Spreading the case out in time

Kavili espouses these views on the court’s decision of insistence:  

“The court’s approach is to slow the process down by spreading it out in time and not give out the due sentence. When the defendant is a government official, they usually follow this tactic. 

“The Supreme Court of Appeals says, ‘Examine the DNA sample of Okey’s brother and accept the request of intervention if it’s really his brother.’

“This court waited for Festus Okey’s civil registry extract to be brought from Nigerian Population Affairs Directorate for four years to understand if it was him that had been killed. The case was extended four years with just this excuse. 

“Ultimately, I made a demand. I said, ‘There’s a report documenting the transfer of a dead body from one state to the other. If it weren’t him, one state wouldn’t give the funeral to another. This debate on the identity has to end.’ The court decided in that hearing to abandon the wait. 

“Now the Supreme Court of Appeals Penal Chamber says to decide whether his brother is actually his brother and then accept his request of intervention accordingly. 

“The aim here is to make sure the defendant police officer goes back to his duty by statute of limitation. They’re conveying the message, ‘there’s no justice or anything of the kind in this shop, go somewhere else.’”

What had happened?

He was killed by police fire in the Beyoğlu Safety and Security Department on August 20, 2007. Prosecution launched a case in Beyoğlu 7^th Assize Court against police officer Cengiz Yıldız who shot Okey.

It turned out that it was Yıldız who had prepared the official report the night of the incident. So Yıldız first shot Okey with his gun, and then assumed duty in the investigation of this incident. This document composed by defendant Yıldız and his teammates was placed in the file as evidence.

The Peace Court confiscated the weapon used in the incident. However, officer Yıldız requested the weapon back. The court accepted his request, and so not only was Yıldız not suspended and continued to receive full pay, but his weapon was also given back to him. 

The shirt Okey was wearing when he was shot was lost. The shirt was a crucial piece of evidence in that it would show the distance and the angle from which the gun had been fired. 

In the case’s 16^th hearing on December 13, 2011, police officer Yıldız was sentenced to four years two months in prison. 

The Supreme Court of Appeals Public Prosecution decided to overturn the four year two months prison sentence police officer Cengiz Yıldız received on January 17, 2013 for shooting Okey, and to have him tried again, this time facing up to 20 years in prison. (EKN/PU/BM)

* Click here to read the article in Turkish.