Arrest Demand for Police Who Shot Korkut

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A petition demanding that the police officer Y.Ş., who shot Kemal Kurkut to death in Newroz celebrations and is still on active duty, be jailed pending trial has been submitted to the court.

According to Deniz Tekin from the Mesopotamia Agency, lawyer Reyhan Yalçındağ Baydemir stated that there is enough evidence for the defendant police to be arrested and submitted a petition to the court.

“He intentionally shot him to death”

The petition submitted by Kemal Kurkut’s lawyer Reyhan Yalçındağ Baydemir emphasized that “the defendant police Y.Ş. intentionally shot Kurkut to death”.

“Even though it was proved by means of video footage that the victim was shot by the defendant with purpose of killing, the court unlawfully rejected prosecutor’s demand for the arrest of the police officer”, the petition added.

What happened?

Kemal Kurkut was shot to death by police at security check point on Evrim Alataş street near Newroz Park in Turkey’s southeastern Diyarbakır province on March 21.

In the photos taken at the incident time, Kurkut was seen bare-chested quarreling with police at the check point and starting to run passing through the check point. As some of the police fire in the air, some others fire on him.

dihaber reported that Kurkut was shot despite a police chief ordering “Don’t shoot”.

Diyarbakır Governorship declared that Kurkut had a knife in his hand, he was “suspected to be a suicide attacker”, and an investigation has been launched into the incident.

Born in Adıyaman, Kurkut was a student at İnönü University Fine Arts Faculty Department of Music.

His funeral was held on March 22 in Batalgazi district of Malatya province. (AS/TK)