Arrest Warrant for Sivas Massacre Suspect after 16 Years

The Ankara 11^th High Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Cafer Erçakmak 16 years after the Sivas Massacre. In the course of the massacre, Erkçakmak tried to push Welfare Party Sivas Municipality MP Aziz Nesin off a fire engine while rescuing the victims from the burning hotel.

The Sivas massacre in central Anatolia was an attack against Alevi intellectuals and artists. 37 people lost their lives when the Madimak Hotel in Sivas was set on fire on 2 July 1993.

Upon information of the Turkish Statistic Institute (TÜİK) about Erçakmak's whereabouts in France, the joint attorneys applied to the court to initiate the process of the defendant's extradition to Turkey in the hearing on 1 September. On its own motion, the court decided to issue an arrest warrant without waiting for the coming hearing on 24 December.

Investigation into Erçakmak's whereabouts

Joint attorney Şenal Sarıhan talked to bianet after the previous hearing, saying that TÜİK passed information to the Civil Registry on 9 September 2007, claiming that Erçakmak was living in France. According to Sarıhan, it had been confirmed that the defendant's retirement benefits were paid till 1989.

The plaintiffs' lawyers applied to the court to have the defendant's residence confirmed by the French Consulate in Turkey and by the French Foreigners Department in order to effect Erçakmak's extradition to Turkey.

Upon presenting Erçakmak's Turkish ID and his social security number, the court accepted the demands of the joint attorneys. Moreover, the court was going to investigate why the payment of the defendant's retirement benefits was stopped in 1989.

37 artists and intellectuals were killed in the massacre

33 convicts were sentenced to death penalty for "trying to break the order of the constitution by force". The plaintiffs' lawyers found out only by chance that a court case had been opened in 2004 against seven of the defendants, among them also Erçakmak. The lawyers demanded Erçakmak's extradition to Turkey in the trial before the Ankara 11^th High Criminal Court.

Files of 33 defendants at the Court of Appeals

The joint attorneys found out about the ongoing prosecution against defendants Cafer Erçakmak, Şefket Erdoğan, Köksal Koçak, İhsan Çakmak, Hakan Karaca, Yılmaz Bağ and Necmi Karaömeroğlu coincidentally via a journalist's news item. After 5 years, the prosecutor demanded to drop the case because the statute of limitation was running out.

Sarıhan criticized, "This is against the law. They had to notify us". The lawyers handed a petition to the court and were accepted as joint plaintiffs on 19 December 2008.

The Ankara 1^st State Security Court sentenced 33 defendants to death penalty for "trying to break the order of the constitution by force". The defendants' claim to benefit from the Society Reintegration Law no. 4959 was refused on 26 December 2006. The file remains at the Court of Appeals. (EÖ/VK)