Missing Ergul "Found" - Family Demands Trial of Commander

A forensic medical report from Fırat University has confirmed that bones found on a graveyard for poor people are those of Hasan Ergul, who disappeared 14 years ago. The DNA test was carried out with a blood sample from his 17-year-old son Valat Ergul.

Serdar Çelebi, a lawyer from the Diyarbakır branch of the Human Rights Association (İHD), to which the Ergul family has applied, told bianet that the family had previously filed a criminal complaint against Colonel Cemal Temizöz, the commander in the area at the time, and Koçero Saluci, a member of the secret Gendarmerie Intelligence and Anti-Terrorism Unit (JİTEM). The two had been named by former PKK militant and later JİTEM officer Abdülkadir Aygan as being responsible.

Both Temizöz and Saluci have been arrested in connection with the trial of the ultranationalist clandestine Ergenekon organisation.

According to Çelebi, the Ergul family is determined to see justice done in the case. They are even considering becoming third party plaintiffs in the Ergenekon trial.

Kidnapped in Silopi

In 1995, Hasan Ergul was returning from hospital with his son, whom he had taken to the Silopi district town in the southeastern province of Şırnak. He was kidnapped by people in plain clothes and with radios, and was never seen again.

The prosecution previously closed a case of a mana ged 40-45 who had been strangled with string or something similar, put in a bag and thrown into Hazar Lake. In the file there were photos of the body, and according to the Günlük newspaper, the family identified their relative from these photographs.

In 2004, former JITEM member Abdülkadir Aygan had spoken to the Ülkede Özgür Gündem newspaper:

"A person from Silopi called Hasan, I think from Kortik village. A person working for JITEM, well-off, called Cindi, surname Acut or Acet and nick-named 'Koçer', took Hasan to the Silopi team. Hasan was then taken to the Diyarbakır team and then to the Elazığ team, and he was killed. They put his body in a sack and threw it into Hazar Lake."

Ergul's family will take his bones to Silopi and bury them there. (TK/AG)