Police Obscures Evidence, Says Angry Father

"We will fight to the last to receive clear answers about the killing of my son,"  says Mehmet Tursun, the father of 20-year old Baran Tursun, who was shot by the police in Izmir on 25 November for not obeying the order to stop his car, to bianet. Baran's uncle Süleyman Tursun added, "We will not give up, if necessary we will go to the European Court of Human Rights."  

Tursun answered bianet's questions: 

What is your legal demand in this case?

At the moment a person is being tried for our son's death. We are not satisfied with only one person being on trial. What did they do? They took photos of my son with a file for a competitive bid, they tried to pretend it was an accident. This is not something that one person does, but three or four.

What did you do after the event, who did you speak to?

In the records (of the hospital) it said that a bullet was found in head of the person brought in after a car accident. Until 12 o'clock, the police denied this. When I spoke with the police they said that such a thing was impossible, that "the police does not shoot citizens." They showed me the Police Incidents Book for that day. When the TV channels started reporting about it at 2 pm, they felt they quickly had to make a statement. The prosecutor has prepared a simple loss assessment report, but there is no proper report yet, and the file is waiting on the prosecutor's desk.

The Tursun family

The family moved to Izmir from Diyarbakir in 1994 and worked in construction. They have made eight to ten schools, have entered competitive bids for the Ministry of Defense and have worked for the Ministry. The shooting happened at a time when father Tursun was preparing to hand over the business to his children.

Baran Tursun had registered as a student at the Open University economics department. (UB/NZ/AG)