How Can Ağar Dodge Being Brought to Justice?

İsmail Bahçeci was a student at Marmara University. He was taken under custody on 24 December 1994 and was never heard of again.

Talking to bianet, his brother Umut said that those responsible from his disappearance are the senior officers of that time, asking "Why don't they stand trial?"

* Following [former member of the counter-guerilla] Ayhan Çarkın's statement in March, Feyyaz Yaman, -brother of another victim, Hisamettin Yaman- and I filed a complaint to the Istanbul public prosecutor's office. We're waiting for this complaint to proceed.

* I believe that there can be two motives behind Çarkın's statements. Either he's talking to gain fame, or he's trying to clear his conscience. If anything was found during the exploration in Silivri, the place where Çarkın claimed to bury some corpses in the past, I'd be more hopeful in my search for my brother's corpse.

* The real criminals are still at large. Former police chief and Minister of Justice Mehmet Ağar has to stand trial.

* Former PM Tansu Çiller and Ağar are responsible for the extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances that took place between 1993 and 1996.

* If Ağar talks, the fate of İsmail and others like him could be unearthed. The current government has the power to pursue this aim. Why they don't do it?

İsmail was 26 when he disappeared. On 24 December 1994, the Istanbul Police Antı-Terror Division informed us that he had been taken under custody in relation to an investigation concerning a crime committed in the State of Emergency Region (OHAL).

An unidentified person called his father and told him that İsmail is under police custody. His father and brother went to the police station to question İsmail's whereabouts but the police claimed that no one under that name was present. The public prosecutor's office also could not provide any information. (AS/EÜ)