Suruç massacre: Defendant given life sentence, families say case 'covered up'

Families spaking to the press. (Photo: MA)

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

On July 20, 2015, ISIS carried out a suicide bomb attack in Suruç district of Urfa, a Kurdish-majority province in the country's southeast. Thirty-three people lost their lives and more than 100 were founded in the explosion.

Led by the Federation of Socialist Youth Associations (SGDF), the people had gathered at the Arama Cultural Center as part of a campaign to bring toys and aid to children in Kobanî, a Syrian Kurdish town neighboring Urfa.

The only defendant who was under arrest in the Suruç massacre case has been sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment 34 times, as well as 1,890 years in prison.

The 21st and final hearing of the case was held on Friday (October 22) at the Urfa 5th Heavy Penal Court.

Gendarmerie officers

Tensions rose between the families and the court board after it rejected the attorneys' request for making statements against the prosecutor's opinion as to the accusations, Mesopotamia Agency (MA) reported.

After a break, gendarmerie officers were let in the courtroom, between the families and the court board.

"We can't see you, the court board, there is the gendarmerie in between," said attorney Ruken Gülağacı. "Remove the gendarmerie officers. I can't even see my client. This trial is held under weapons. We are not defendants.

"Everyone comes here with a hope. They want to have their last words. Why are you preventing it? You can't explain this to us. Legally, we have the right to speak," said the attorney.

The court board rejected the request to remove the gendarmerie.

Attorney Sevda Çelik said the court ruled the Constitution by not allowing the attorneys to make a statement.

"The senence requested for Yakup Şahin might be fair in terms of one person. However, justice won't be served generally," she said, adding that the case of Azzo Halaf Suleyman al-Aggal, an ISIS operative suspected to have provided explosives for the Suruç and Sultanahmet bombings, should be merged with the Suruç case.

The court board unanimously rejected the request for a merger.

Metin Kılıç, who lost his spouse Ferdane and son Nartan in the attack, requested the recusal of the judge because he "doesn't believe there will be a fair trial." This request was rejected as well.

The court also ruled that criminal complaints should be filed against Socialist PArty of the Oppressed (ESP) Co-Chair Şahin Tümüklü, Çağla Seven, who was wounded in the explosion, Fethi Aydın, the father of Çağdaş Aydın, who lost his life in the attack and Sezin Uçar for insulting and threatening the court board.

The verdict

Announcing its verdict, the court sentenced Yakup Şahin to aggravated life imprisonment 34 times for "attempting to overthrow the constitutional order," "being a member of an armed terrorist organization," "murder by premeditation or bombing."

The defendant was separately sentenced to 1,890 years in prison attempting to commit this crime. He was also sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined 40,000 lira for possessing explosives.

The court also ruled that the files fugitive defendants İlhami Bali and Deniz Büyükçelebi should be separated.

After the ruling, Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Spokesperson Ebrü Günay said they wouldn't let the case covered up. "Just as in all dirty cases, the perpetrators were protected today, the case was covered up.

Republican People's Party (CHP) deputy Orhan Sarıbal said, "The cases are tried to be covered up through symbolic and chosen scapegoats.

ESP Co-Chair Tümüklü said, "We don't recognize this decision. Our struggle will continue."

What happened?

Upon the call of the Socialist Youth Associations Federation (SGDF), around 300 young people came together in Suruç in Turkey's southeastern province of Urfa on July 20, 2015. They were there to bring toys and humanitarian aid to the Kurdish town of Kobanî in northern Syria. While they were in front of the Amara Cultural Center for a statement for the press, a suicide bomb attack was carried out. Thirty-three people lost their lives and more than 100 were wounded.

ISIS operative Şeyh Abdurrahman Alagöz was identified to have carried out the bomb attack. A confidentiality order was imposed on the file on July 23, 2015 because "the examination of the documents in the file would jeopardize the purpose of the investigation."

Filed by the Şanlıurfa Chief Public Prosecutor's Office 18 months after the massacre, the indictment demanded that three defendants, one of whom was arrested, be given life sentences aggravated for 104 times each.

Yakup Şahin, one of the defendants, was arrested as a suspect. According to the indictment, Deniz Büyükçelebi and İlhami Ballı, the other two defendants, were in Syria.

The lawsuit filed into the Suruç Massacre started 21 months after the incident at the Şanlıurfa 5th Heavy Penal Court on May 4, 2017. The only defendant of the case who was not a fugitive did not attend the hearing.

In the final hearing of the case filed against the public officials on January 9, 2017, Mehmet Yapalıal, the then district security director of Suruç, was fined 7,500 lira for "neglect of duty and misconduct in office." The court ruled that he shall pay the fine in 12 instalments.

There were two police officers as defendants in the second case against public officials, who are still tried for "misconduct in office" at the Suruç Penal Court of First Instance. (AAÖ/KÖ/VK)