Criminal Complaint Against Defendant’s Attorney in Şule Çet Case

"Not male justice, but real justice"

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"They can access the transcript of Şule Çet at Gazi University and her hospital records in Adana. One cannot access this information without a court verdict. They are trying to affect the case in this way. They also have the powerful media on their side. There is an attempt to change the public opinion about the case through the media and unlawful evidence."

It is how lawyer Umut Yıldırım summarizes the latest developments in Şule Çet case. University student Şule Çet suspiciously lost her life after falling off the 20th floor of a high-rise building in Ankara on May 29, 2018.

Umut Yıldırım and Ferhat Gebeş, the attorneys of Çet family, have filed a criminal complaint against Levent Ekmen, the attorney of defendant Çağatay Aksu, and the related officials at Gazi University and Adana Yüreğir State Hospital on charges of "violation of privacy", "attempting to influence free trial" and "obtaining personal information by unlawful means".

'Samples taken from Şule match with Akand's DNA'

Lawyer Yıldırım has told bianet that the third report of the Forensic Medicine Institute has been added to the case file. Underlining that some media groups have reported on the report by sharing false information about it, lawyer Umut Yıldırım has said: "In reporting these news, they present them as if there was nothing important in these reports. In fact, the last report has indicated that the DNA samples taken from the fingernails of Şule Çet match with the DNA of Berk Akand, one of the defendants."

Yıldırım has also indicated that they have raised another request for a lip-reading specialist so that the video footages captured at the night of incident can be deciphered. The attorneys have also requested a new report. Concluding his remarks, Yıldırım has said:

"The case is drawing to an end. We expect that the opinion as to the accusations will be announced in the next hearing. We want the entire truth to be brought to light. But, in the meanwhile, we also see that the attorneys of the defendants access information that cannot be accessed by legal means. They go to any lengths to change the course of the trial."

List of deceased sent to defendant's phone

As reported by Burcu Yıldırım from daily Evrensel, when the phone records of Berk Akand were analyzed, it was seen that he called his fiancee N. over shortly after Çet lost her life. In his messages sent to her at 04.12 a.m. on May 29, 2019, Akand wrote, "It is urgent", "Come", "Please". In the evening of the same day, N. sent some screenshots to Berk Akand. It was the list of the people who lost their lives on the day of incident.

In the death information system of the Ministry of Health, which is highly difficult to access by third parties, the death of Şule Çet was not indicated as a "natural death", but as a "judicial case". Even a prosecutor can access this information with a court verdict. For that reason, the way in which the relatives of the defendant obtained this information is an issue of concern.

The next hearing of the case will be held at the Ankara 31st Heavy Penal Court on November 20. (EMK/SD)