Independent Expert Disproves Official Reports on Önkol's Death

According to an independent report prepared by Prof. Ümit Biçer, Forensic Medicine expert from the Kocaeli University School of Medicine, 12-year old girl Ceylan Önkol did not set off a bomb on the field by hitting it with a knife but to the contrary died in a position of defence.

Önkol died under controversial circumstances on 28 September 2009 on a field close to her home village in the district of Lice in the south-eastern province of Diyarbakır while she was herding a flock of goats.

The report was prepared upon the request of the Önkol family lawyers. Prof. Biçer reviewed expert reports issued by the investigation unit of the Lice District Gendarmerie Command and the Chief Inspector, İrfan Özhan, the Lice Public Prosecution's records of the autopsy and 20 photographs taken during the autopsy and on the scene of the incident. In his report, Biçer assesses these documents as follows: "The prepared documents and records are incomplete. They contain identification and evaluation errors and unprofessional interpetations".

Autopsy incorrect and unprofessional

Biçer assessed the wounds and the position of the body as follows:

* The evaluation of the autopsies which were carried out contrary to the common methods and in the absence of a forensic medicine expert is incorrect and lacks evidence. The evaluation was made by one general practitioner only. The necessary radiological investigation to determine the many particles that invaded the body was left undone.

* The photographs and the wounds described allow the assumption that an explosion happened in front of the person within a certain distance.

* The hands were not torn off or broken. The injuries on her arms and forearms occurred on the inner backwards side of the arms. This leads us to the assumption that she was hit while she was in a defence position.

* The evaluation of the wounds on the body and the photographs as a whole provides the assumption that an explosion happened on the ground or close to the ground in front of the person without the interference of the person. We may assume that the person did not intervene with her hands or an object held in her hand.

Explosive was not hit with a knife

Biçer said that the report prepared by Chief Inspector Özhan lacks accuracy. Özhan had stated that "Önkol died as a result of hitting an explosive on the ground with a knife in her hand". Biçer reached the following conclusions:

* The investigation of the scene was carried out after an intervention of unauthorized people and only two days after the incident. The report does not mention whether alleged evidence for an explosion was investigated and if yes in which way; e.g. a permission to investigate trees in the environment, dead goats and the knife. Instead, an expert signing the report as a bomb specialist put forward that the wounds on the body were caused by an explosion triggered by a knife in the person's hand.

* The deformation of the knife can have occurred when it hit the bomb ammunition as well as when it was held in the hand or close to the body of the person close to the explosion. (SP/VK)