Kemal Kurkut’s mother: Why is there no justice?

* Photo: MA

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Shot to death by police during the Newroz celebrations in Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeastern province of Diyarbakır in 2017, Kemal Kurkut's mother Sican Kurkut has said that she will never accept the acquittal of the police officer who caused the death of her son.

Speaking to Arjin Dilek Öncel and Mehmet Erol from the Mezopotamya Agency (MA), Sican Kurkut has asked "What kind of justice is that? What kind of a court, a judge is that?" and answered as follows: "I did not raise my son so that that rat would kill him one day."

Indicating that her son was shot while he was half-naked and by being specifically targeted, Sican Kurkut has reiterated that she will never accept the court's verdict of acquittal. "They shot my son, he did not commit a crime or a sin. If there is a crime, then detain him, arrest him," she has said and added, "Damn you, don't you see? Why did you shoot him?"

"My son was an orphan. I raised him and his other siblings in poverty," Sican Kurkut has said. "How come is no sentence given when a 22-year-old innocent young person is killed," she has asked.

"Handing down such judgements means that the police will continue claiming the lives of young people, they will think, 'We will get away with it.'

"When someone hurt him, he would not say a word, he would say, 'They will not intervene with me, they will not do anything to me.' He could not know his murderers. He could not say, 'They are cruel, they are murderers, they have no conscience.' "Why is there no justice? What kind of justice is it that it has freed the person who killed a young person?"

Police officer acquitted

Put on trial for killing Kemal Kurkut "with eventual intent", police officer Y.Ş. has been acquitted by the court. In the hearing of the lawsuit held at the Diyarbakır 7th Heavy Penal Court on November 17, the court ruled that police officer Y.Ş. should be acquitted and criminal complaints should be filed against 72 police officers to identify the possible suspects.

As for the reason for the acquittal, the ruling referred to "a lack of conclusive and convincing evidence beyond any suspicion which showed that the defendant had committed this crime and would suffice for his penalization."

What happened?

Kemal Kurkut was shot dead by the police at the security checkpoint on Evrim Alataş street near Newroz Park in Diyarbakır on March 21, 2017.

In the photos taken at the incident time, Kurkut was seen bare-chested quarreling with police at the checkpoint and starting to run passing through the checkpoint. Some police officers fired in the air, some fired on him.

Dihaber reported that Kemal Kurkut was shot despite a police chief ordering "Don't shoot". Diyarbakır Governor's Office 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 Battalgazi district of Malatya province. (AS/SD)