"Ali Ismail's Killers Must Be Charged With Premeditated Murder"

Eskişehir 2nd High Criminal Court admitted the case indictment of Ali İsmail Korkmaz, a Gezi Resistance protestor who died on July 10 due to a battery by a group. Drafted by prosecutor Hakan Ali Erkan, the indictment was approved by chief prosecutor Orhan Çetingül and admitted by penal judge Ahmet Şanverdi. 

The first hearing of the trial is scheduled to November 20 at 9 am local time. 

Currently, 5 suspects are jailed. Out 8 defendants, only M.S., a policeman, is charged with life sentence for “premeditated murder”.  

Jailed defendants İ.K., R..K., M.V. and E.H. as well as policeman Ş.G., H.E. and Y.A. have been charged with 10 to 15 years of prison for “collaborative murder”. 

Two  of the highlights from what Pınar Çelik Arpacı, Korkmaz family advocate, told bianet are as follows: 

* The indictment contradicts with the “qualified conditions of the crime” which requires “life sentence charges”. 

* The indictment was completed before the arrival of analysis report from TÜBİTAK - Turkey’s main scientific research institution. 

“Premeditated murder"

Reminding a footage where individuals are waiting over two hours and ambushing to beat Korkmaz,  Arpacı claimed that Korkmaz was killed in a premeditative fashion. 

“Turkish Penal Code Article 82 enlists the “qualified conditions for premeditative murder”. When applied, suspects are charged with life sentence,” she said. 

“The section a of that article has the title “by planning” and the section g of that article has the title “due to a public duty that individual is executing”. 

“In this case, civil suspects must be charged according to section a and policemen must be charged according to section g.”

“Doers of same crime, other policemen are not jailed” 

Arpacı also pointed out that the indictment was completed before some evidence were properly collected, underscoring another issue with the indictment. 

“There is missing footage recorded from a nearby hotel surveillance camera. It might even turn out that others are involved. Maybe even active-duty officers. If new suspects show up, the prosecutor must launch another case and request a case merge. This is a hard possibility.” 

She also reminded that released policemen and jailed baker suspects were charged with the same charges. 

“Those policemen are on active-duty now and there is a high risk that they might darken some evidence. On the other hand, no testimony was ordered for police chief even though policemen testified that they took the order from supervisors.” (BK/AS/BM)

* Click here to read the original article in Turkish.