Week of Remembrance for Killed Lawyer Tahir Elçi
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A week of remembrance will be held for lawyer Tahir Elçi, beginning on November 28, the fourth anniversary of his killing.
Elçi was shot dead during a press statement in the southeastern Diyarbakır province and the perpetrators of the killing have yet to be identified.
A march from the Diyarbakır Courthouse to the Sheikh Matar Mosque, where Elçi was killed, the Diyarbakır BAr Association said in a statement. A press conference will be held there on 10.53 a.m., the time of the killing. Then Elçi's grave will be visited at 1 p.m.
The week of remembrance will also include a photography exhibition, movie screening and a panel discussion entitled, "Kurdish Rights Movement and Lawyer Tahir Elçi."
HDP requests parliamentary inquiry into Elçi's killing
Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) MP Meral Danış-Beştaş has submitted a petition for a parliamentary inquiry into the killing of Elçi.
"The statements made by the authorities at the time that the perpetrators of the murder would be found remained to be inconclusive and no perpetrators were found, just as the murders the perpetrators of which were not found," she said.
"Of course, it is the biggest concern that the actions taken during the trial phase have the same outcome as all of the unidentified murders, that is, to remain unidentified as a reflection of the state policies of impunity."
What happened?Tahir Elçi, who was the Chair of Diyarbakır Bar Association, was murdered in front of the Four-Legged Minaret in Sur in Turkey's southeastern province of Diyarbakır on November 28, 2015 during a statement for the press. Though it has been three years since the murder of Tahir Elçi, the perpetrators have still not been brought to justice. The investigation into his murder has proceeded as follows: * Two chief prosecutors and four prosecutors conducting the investigation have been changed so far. * Four law enforcement officers who were seen to be shooting in the direction of Elçi in the video footages were listened only as witnesses. * While the examination of the video footages captured by the surveillance cameras of the shops in the vicinity of the scene of incident has remained inconclusive, the fourth camera of the Mardin Kebab House, which was positioned in such a way to capture the murder, "was not working". * In the video footage captured by the police cameras, there is a 13-second gap, including the moment when Elçi was shot. * Despite the applications submitted by the attorneys of Elçi family to the Prosecutor's Office, the memory card of the police camera is not found. * No criminal investigation has been conducted on the weapons of over 30 police officers who were on the street at the time of incident. |
(EMK/VK)