Mehmet Ağar to stand trial again over 19 unidentified murders

* Photo: Mehmet Ağar's Twitter account

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

In the trial over unidentified murders heard in the capital city of Ankara, the court of appeals has overturned the rulings of acquittal of the defendants, including Mehmet Ağar, a former Minister of Interior of Turkey. The defendants will now stand trial again as part of this case.

CLICK - Ankara JİTEM Case Ends in Acquittal as Well

As reported by Gökçer Tahincioğlu from T24, in the trial of 19 defendants over the enforced disappearance or arbitrary execution of 19 people in the 1990s, the acquittals of the defendants have been reversed.

What does the ruling say?

In the related ruling of the court of appeals, it has been indicated that the statements of defendant Ayhan Çarkın during the course of different stages were not confirmed by the other statements and evidence in the file and that it was not discussed while handing down the ruling whether these statements overlapped with the material incidents or not.

The ruling of the court of appeals has noted that "the origin of the cartridge cases and cartridge bullets, their belonging as to their usage, the relation between them and the other material facts and any possible connection among the the accused perpetrators, the targeted victims and the incidents in terms of their happening and result were not considered."

The ruling has also indicated that there was a violation of the Article 232/6 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CMK) in the sense that "there was only a reference to some contradictions in defendant Ayhan Çarkın's statements and the statements that complied with the material incidents were not addressed, thereby handing down a judgement on insufficient grounds."

In referring to the violation of the Article 232/6 of the CMK, the court of appeals has further said that "the article implemented while giving the ruling of acquittal for the defendants was not indicated."

According to the court, even though the name of victim Hikmet Babataş, who was killed on April 28, 1996, was written in the indictment and heading of the justified ruling, no incident was mentioned, no lawsuit was filed and no ruling was handed down as to his killing. However, the fact that both his name and the names of his involving legatees/ plaintiffs Ersin, Fatma, Yaşar and Anıl Babataş were written in the heading of the justified ruling led to a confusion.

In reversing the local court ruling, the court of appeals has also concluded that the names of involving parties/ plaintiffs Semih Tufan Gülaltay, Ümit Bahçacı and Ruşen Örs were written in the heading of the justified ruling without considering that they did not have a relation with the incidents that they mentioned or a relation to the victims, which also led to a confusion.

What happened?

On December 20, 2013, a bill of indictment was prepared on the perpetrators who caused the death of businesspeople and writers in the 1990s.

According to the indictment, the defendants were accused of murdering Abdülmecit Baskın, Namık Erdoğan, Metin Vural, Recep Kuzucu, Behçet Cantürk, Savaş Buldan, Haci Karay, Adnan Yıldırım, İsmail Karaalioğlu, Yusuf Ekinci, Ömer Lutfi Topal, Hikmet Babataş, Medet Serhat, Feyzi Aslan, Lazem Esmaeılı, Asker Smıtko, Tarık Ümit, Salih Aslan and Faik Candan.

Defendants of the case were Mehmet Ağar, İbrahim Şahin, Korkut Eken, Ayhan Çarkın, Ayhan Akça, Ziya Bandırmalıoğlu, Ercan Ersoy, Ahmet Demirel, Ayhan Özkan, Seyfettin Lap, Enver Ulu, Uğur Şahin, Alper Tekdemir, Yusuf Yüksel, Abbas Semih Sueri, Lokman Külünk, Mahmut Yıldırım, Nurettin Güven, Muhsin Korman.

The defendants were put on trial at the Ankara 1st Heavy Penal Court and charged with "killing people as part of the activities of an armed organization established to commit crimes."

The ruling was handed down by the local court on December 13, 2019. The court ruled that the file of Mahmut Yıldırım with the code name "Yeşil" (Green) should be separated as he was still seen as a fugitive.

All defendants including Mehmet Ağar were acquitted. The charges brought against Ahmet Demirel, who died during the trial, were dropped.

In handing down the ruling, the court board said that "there was no evidence in the file" and did not consider the objections of involving attorneys.

The files of the defendants of Asker Smitko and Lazem Esmailli murders, who were not among the 19 victims, were separated. (DŞ/AS/SD)