Reopening of Bookshop Triggers Investigation

While the trial of the bombing of the Umut bookstore in Semdinli is being paralysed by being sent from court to court, people attending the reopening of the store have become the subject of a formal investigation.

Hakkari

20 people are being investigated by the prosecution for their attendance at the re-opening of the bombed Umut bookstore in Semdinli, in the eastern province of Hakkari.

The bookstore made the headlines of the country after it was bombed on 9 November 2005. Three people were arrested as suspects, two of them gendarmerie officers and one a PKK-informer.

MPs among those investigated

Among those being investigated for their attendance are former MPs Ahmet Türk, Selim Sadak and Hatip Dicle, now of the Democratic Society Party (DTP), the Diyarbakir mayor Osman Baydemir, publisher Seferi Yilmaz (owner of the bookstore) and Filiz Kocali, chairperson of the Socialist Democracy Party (SDP). Some of the people investigated have been elected MPs in the 22 July elections.

The bookstore was reopened on 18 March 2006, and the investigation has been opened one and a half years later under Law No. 2911 concerning Meetings and Marches.

Salih Yildiz, mayor of Yüksekova (in Hakkari) and former MP Selim Sadak reacted against the investigation in a statement to the Dicle News Agency. (EÖ/AG)

Reopening of Bookshop Triggers Investigation

Hakkari

Hakkari

Trial in Bookshop Bombing “Not Fair”

"Good Guys" Released in Semdinli Trial

Trial in Bookshop Bombing “Not Fair”

"Good Guys" Released in Semdinli Trial