Police authorities in Istanbul provided the names of 1065 riot policemen who had been assigned to the location where Berkin Elvan was targeted on June 16, 2013. It was reported that the number of policemen assigned at the exact location turned out 275.
Among these policemen included police officers from Education Bureau Headquarters.
Helmet numbers unknown
Police authorities, however, did not provide any information related the helmet number of police officers. It is also unclear whether the statement sent by the police authorities included any details related to tear gas usage assignments.
Advocate Evrim Deniz Karatana submitted another request to Istanbul Prosecutor’s Office in order to retrieve the missing information from the police including the helmet numbers of involved police officers.
Location detection through TİB
The request also included the details related to tear gas usage assignments.
Advocate Karatana, also requested the detection of top suspect 21 police officers and chiefs’s cell phone numbers.
The request, then, also urged police authorities to demand the information from Turkey’s Telecommunication Authorities (TIB) regarding the crime scene information on the morning of June 16.
"No involvment of educational and administrational staff"
It turned out that prosecutor Bildirici made two requests to the police officers regarding the identification of suspected policemen.
According to a first response on December 16, 2013, police authorities 791 policemen were assigned in the location.
According to a second response, police authorities came up with 1065 policemen.
While the police authorities came up with two helmet number in the first response, they did not provide any names in the second response.
On the other hand, they provided the identity of 36 policemen who were not mentioned in the first response.
“Police authorities also acknowledged that some of the suspected policemen mentioned in the first response were actually working at educational and administrational positions, and they had no involvement in the case,” advocate Karatana said.
Same demand for nine months!
Advocate Karatana also requested to have the list attached to the case file, a request initially made since June 2013:
“We need to identify the police officers and chief who were either trained to use tear gas bomb rifles or involved the usage of tear gas bomb rifles or ordered the usage of tear gas.” (AS/BM)
