Lawsuit Against DTP Administrator Who Was Nearly Lynched

Chief Prosecutor of the province of Sakarya near Istanbul filed a lawsuit against the head of Sakarya province for the Democratic Society Party (DTP) for the solidarity night festival he organized on April 27. The prosecutor is asking for five years in prison.

Aziz Koçak, the accused, is charged with “doing propaganda work for the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK)” and “praising the crime and the criminal” by Sakarya’s 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance. The first hearing will be in October.

The prosecutor dismissed the charges against the university students H.İ. and A.G., who had acted as announcers in the evening.

Far right nationalists, mostly young men, had stormed the solidarity night festival organized by the Democratic Society Party (DTP) in Sakarya near Istanbul. 65 year-old Ebubekir Kalkalı, who was one of the nearly 500 people besieged by the angry mob, had died following a heart attack. 

It is not known when the 19 people who led the lynch will be tried

Sakarya’s 1st Criminal Court of First Instance has not determined a hearing date for the case of the 19 people who tried to storm the building where the DTP festival was held.

Last year there were many attacks against the Kurds in Sakarya. In March 2007, a bomb exploded in the building where DTP’s Sakarya Province Branch Office is, causing damage.

In June 2007, two Kurdish young people were attacked for wearing t-shirts with the picture of Ahmet Kaya on them, a famous pro-Kurdish singer. Around the same time, two seasonal Kurdish workers were attacked and nearly lynched. (BÇ/EÜ)