Lawyers Invite Plaintiff Applications against JITEM Commander

Mehmet Emin Aktar and Nuşirevan Elçi, presidents of the Diyarbakır and Şırnak Bar Associations respectively, have called on those who want to become third party plaintiffs in the case against JİTEM (gendarmerie intelligence anti-terrorism unit) commander Cemal Temizöz to apply to them.

Speaking with bianet, the two lawyers said that if relatives of disappeared people and victims of extrajudicial killings or victims of human rights violations in Cizre, a district in the southeastern Kurdish-majority province of Şırnak, between 1993 and 1996 applied, they were thinking of joining the trial. Elçi said that in the last year they had received several applications that related to the period when Temizöz was commander in the area.

The trial against Temizöz, so Elçi, means that the Ergenekon investigation has finally gone "east of the Euphrates river".

Muharrem Erbey, president of the Diyarbakır branch of the Human Rights Association (İHD), told bianet that they, too, were thinking of joining the case.

Accused of murder and criminal organisation

The Diyarbakır 6th Heavy Penal Court has accepted an indictment of Temizöz, former Cizre mayor and village guard head Kamil Atak and five other defendants.

The prosecution is accusing them of murder, forming a criminal organisation and inciting to homicide.

Temizöz, who was on duty in Cizre as a captain, faces nine life sentences under severe conditions, while the otehrs face one life sentence each.

Atak's son Temel Atak is another defendant, as are former PKK militants and later JİTEM members Adem Yarkın, Hıdır Altuğ, and Abdulhakim Güven, and undetained defendant Kukel Atak.

Held responsible for 20 deaths

The prosecutor wrote that there were 55 murders with unknown perpetrators in Cizre between 1993 and 1997, and the defendants are being held responsible for the death of twenty people: "Ramazan Elçi, Ramazan Uykur, Abdullah Efelti, İbrahim Adak, Mehmet Gürri Özer, İbrahim Danış, Abdurrahman Afşar, Abdurrahman Akyol, İhsan Arslan, Beşir Bayar, Abdurrezak Binzet, İzzet Padır, Abdullah Özdemir, Mustafa Aydın, Süleyman Gasyak, Abdulaziz Gasyak, Ömer Candoruk, Yahya Akman, Abdulhamit Düdük and a male of foreign nationality."

Temizöz, now gendarmerie regiment commander in Kayseri, central Turkey, was brought to Diyarbakır four months ago. After being questioned by a prosecutor with special authorities, he was arrested and taken to prison. (TK/AG)