Police Officer Gets 2 Years for Killing Youth

The court case concerning the death of Baran Tursun, a young man who was shot and killed by a police officer in Izmir, western Turkey, when he did not follow an order to stop, has been concluded.

Defendant police officer Oral Emre Atar has received a sentence of 2 years and 1 month imprisonment by the Karşıyaka 1st Heavy Penal Court in Izmir.

"No reason to use a weapon"

Aysun Koç, lawyer for the Tursun family, said that the penalty conformed with a conviction for killing through negligence.

"This means that the court accepts that the defendant police officer killed Tursun not on purpose, but by accident. Once we have read the full argument, we will discuss the right to the use of guns further, but the summary of the decision also supports the use of a gun as the legal right of the police. This is despite all the concrete evidence presented to the court to show the opposite, that there was no reason to use a weapon."

Tursun family to appeal

The Tursun family said in a press briefing after the hearing that they would continue their struggle to have the perpetrators punished, if necessary by applying to the European Court of Human Rights.

Lawyer Koç has announced a definite filing of an appeal against the court decree.

Father Mehmet Tursun reacted angrily to the court decree:

"We are in pain. They killed our son. The sentence is very short. Legal alleys have been closed. Apart from legal pathways, we also tried appealing to the family of the defendant, saying, 'Our son died, your son killed him, give him up to justice.'"

Ten other police officers had been accused of hiding evidence, but they were all acquitted.

During the case hearing on Wednesday, 20 May, Tursun read a 50-page document in which he listed what he regarded as problematic issues.

Claim of accidental bullet

Referring to the defendant's claim that a shot went off when he fell to the ground, Tursun said, "They always use the same excuse. Why do these ricocheting bullets never hit another police officer standing by, but always target our children?"

Tursun also accused the police officers of making contradictary statements and demanded that they be tried for "deliberate killing."

Muammer Yurdakul and son Tolga Yurdakul, lawyers for the defendant, said that the police officer threw himself to the ground to protect himself, and that a shot went off as a result of the fall.

Expert report rejected possibility of accident

At the previous hearing, Prof. Dr. Ufuk Katkıcı, head of the Adnan Menderes University Forensic Medicin department, had said that Tursun had been targeted and killed. His words had been, "The essence of this report, which is based on scientific data, is that the bullet which entered Baran Tursun's head did not ricochet, but rather followed a path caused by direct targeting."

According to the Izmir police, 20-year-old Baran Tursun had passed a police checkpoint on the night of 25 November 2007, driving in a jeep. He was said to have ignored a call to stop, and the police has claimed to have shot "warning shots." The jeep lost control and crashed into trees and an electricity post. The following morning, Baran Tursun was declared brain dead.

Eye witnesses said that they had heard three shots. Father Tursun has accused the police of obscuring evidence pertaining to the shots and that the whole police force had made efforts to prevent the defendant from being punished. (EZÖ/AG)