Social media campaign demanding the release of ill prisoner Mehmet Emin Özkan

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A social media campaign has been launched to demand the release of seriously ill prisoner Mehmet Emin Özkan (83). Hundreds of social media users have demanded Özkan's release by tweeting under the hashtag #MehmetEminÖzkanıSerbestBırakın (Release Mehmet Emin Özkan).

Behind bars for 25 years, 83-year-old Özkan will appear before the judge in his retrial on September 15, 2021.

CLICK - Forensic Medicine Institution says Özkan can stay behind bars

83-year-old Mehmet Emin Özkan, throughout his twenty-six years behind bars, had five heart attacks. Held in the Diyarbakır Type D Closed Prison in southeast Turkey, Özkan is now also suffering from Alzheimer, aneurysm, blood pressure problems and goitre as well as kidney and intestinal disorders. He has lost his sense of hearing and sight to a considerable extent and cannot meet his personal needs on his own.

CLICK - 'Tomorrow may be too late for Mehmet Emin Özkan'

Recently, the Forensic Medicine Institution has unanimously concluded that 83-year-old seriously ill prisoner Mehmet Emin Özkan can stay in prison. In a video showing how he was taken to the hospital, it was seen that Özkan was having difficulty walking, but he was still handcuffed.

Prosecutor's office also said he was 'not guilty'

While Özkan, who was convicted of murdering Gendarmerie Regional Commander Bahtiyar Aydın in Lice massacre, was imprisoned for many years, in the case opened 20 years after the massacre, the prosecutor's office said that the one responsible for the massacre was Diyarbakır Gendarmerie Regiment Commander retired Colonel Eşref Hatipoğlu.

The Lice Case, in which the massacre that resulted in the murder of 14 civilians, a soldier and the then Gendarmerie Regional Commander Bahtiyar Aydın on 22 October 1993 in Diyarbakır's Lice was tried, ended with the acquittal of retired Colonel Eşref Hatipoğlu, who was the then Commander of the Diyarbakır Gendarmerie Regiment and the sole defendant.

While the court, in its ruling of acquittal, concluded hat Hatipoğlu was not responsible, it did not answer the question of who killed 16 people.

In the indictment of this case, it was stated that the responsible person was the soldier, not an organization, as it was said at that time.

In fact, the indictment stated that "No information was found that Mehmet Emin Özkan had participated in this action."

Mehmet Emin Özkan was also put on trial again eight years ago from the file in which he had been convicted, but he was neither released nor the evidence of the new file was evaluated.

CLICK - New confessions about 1993 Lice massacre on parliamentary agenda

(AS/SD)