Medeni Yıldırım Case: 'They Try to Spoil the Evidence'

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Today's hearing in the case of Medeni Yıldırım, similar to other hearings, lasted about five minutes. Yıldırım (18) was shot dead by soldiers during a protest in 2013 in the Kurdish-majority southern province of Diyarbakır.

The Diyarbakır 7th Heavy Penal Court was not able to receive the reports it requested from the Council of Forensic Medicine (ATK), the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) and the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT).

While the ATK responded the court's request, saying it did not write the requested report, the court was not even able to receive a response from TÜBİTAK and TRT, whom it requested to examine the footage in the case file.

This was "an attempt to spoil the existing evidence," according to an attorney of the Yıldırım family, Mehmet Emin Aktar.

"Information such as footage, incident scene reports, information about the weapon, shooting angles, location of the crowd and location where the fire was shot are included in the file. But six-and-a-half years have passed since the incident. Many evidence can go missing in this period as well. The [state] institutions, by extending the trial over a period of time, try to cool down the incident and to reduce the public's interest," Aktar told bianet.

Defense attorneys did not attend the hearing

While the defendant and his attorneys did not attend the hearing, Fahriye Gündüz Yıldırım, the mother of Medeni Yıldırım, and their attorneys were present at the courtroom.

Yıldırım requested the court to make a judgment "as immediate as possible."

The court decided to wait for a response from ATK, TÜBİTAK and TRT. It ruled that the prosecutor's opinion shall be requested after the deficiencies are completed.

The court also accepted the defendant and his attorneys' request to attend the hearings via teleconference. The only defendant in the case, A.Ç., was a conscript at the time of the incident.

The next hearing will be held on February 20, 2020.

What happened?

Medeni Yıldırım (18) was among a group of people who were protesting the construction of a high-security military outpost in Hezan-Kayacık area in Lice, Diyarbakır on June 28, 2013.

After soldiers opened fire against the crowd, who had a banner that read, "We want peace," Medeni Yıldırım died and eight others were wounded.

Footage that shows Yıldırım was shot emerged in May 2014. An examination was carried out in the scene of the incident about two years after the killing. A lawsuit could be filed in September 2015.

The indictment written by Public Prosecutor Tunus Ferhat Sorgut said Yıldırım was watching people who were throwing rocks at the outpost. The prosecutor charged suspect A.Ç. with "causing the death of Yıldırım with eventual intention by opening fire under unjust provocation."

A.Ç. said in his defense statement that he was at the guard tower during the incident and that he locked and loaded his "Bixi" weapon but did not open fire. He pleaded not guilty.

A.Ç. was acquitted in the case. After the Court of Cassation reversed the judgment, a retrial is underway. (AS/VK)