Nolle Prosequi in Footage Erase Investigation

While a prosecutor has stopped to investigate further the investigation on suspect bakery owner I.K. and policemen E.K. and G.B. regarding the erasing of surveillance footage in Ali Ismail Korkmaz case, another investigation on expert and suspect policeman is underway. 

Korkmaz family’s lawyers submitted objections regarding the prosecutor’s decision. 

According to Vatan newspaper, another investigation on case expert S.U. and non-jailed suspect policeman H.E. is underway. 

One of the rumors is that Anti-Terror unit police H.E. ordered the pausing of video cameras in Beşik Hotel during the beating incident.

Reason for Nolle Prosequi 

“Bakery owner I.K. is one of the suspects in the Ali Ismail Korkmaz killing case and there is no need to launch a new prosecution against him as it is not a crime to obscure crime evidence according to Turkish Penal Code,” wrote Prosecutor Hakan Ali Erkan in his nolle prosequi statement.

“Allegations on policemen E.K and G.B. who took the footage from Beşik Hotel,” the statement continued, “are abstract indeed.” 

What happened?

Prosecutors demanded the analysis of three surveillance cameras nearby the crime scene. While two of the cameras had “no recordings”, footage from Beşik Hotel were transferred to hard disks by the police. However, prosecutors were “unable to open” a footage that hotel owners and policemen were able to watch beforehand.

It was reported that two of three surveillance cameras nearby the crime scene had no recordings and the only remaining camera recordings turned out to be “damaged” and “missing”. Prosecutors launched investigations on law enforcement officers who collected the footage. 

An expert report included “damaged” footage from the time of incident, however no scenes of beating were included. 

Later on, Gendarmerie Criminal Unit was able to retain footage of murder moment that has been deleted. On August 7, a court arrested 4 suspects including a policeman. 

The footage allegedly depicting the assault of bakers in front of Beşik Hotel were unable to be found. 

“Instead of drafting a report out of the footage, Eskişehir Osmangazi University IT Chief S.U. deleted the recordings of assaulting bakers twice,” Gendarmerie report cited. (BK/BM)

* Click here to read the original article in Turkish.