Tahir Elçi murder case: Defendant police officers not arrested

Photo: AA/File

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The second hearing of the case concerning the killing of Diyarbakır Bar Association Chair Tahir Elçi was held at the Diyarbakır 10th Heavy Penal Court.

The plaintiffs, their attorneys, NGO representatives and lawmakers were present in the courtroom.

The defendant police officers claimed that they did not shoot in the direction of Elçi. The court rejected the plaintiffs' request for the arrest of the officers.

Elçi was shot dead while making a statement for the press in Sur, Diyarbakır, on November 28, 2015.

The trial of the killing started nearly five years later, on October 21, 2020.

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Türkan Elçi: Hope is our lifeline

After the court accepted the involvement of Türkan Elçi, the spouse of Tahir Elçi and a lawyer, in the case, she made the first statement.

She briefly said the following as reported by the "Tahir Elçi Case" account on Twitter: 

"As it is known, the first steps of the search for justice in a murder case would be taken in this hall 132 days ago. We were hopeful. Although more than five years had passed, we were hopeful.

"Considering the general atmosphere we live in, the word 'hope' may have lost its credibility for most people, but one who is really aggrieved can never stop hoping because hope is their lifeline.

"As many relatives of the missing people believed that one day those who had gone will return,

"We have respect for your office, which was named 'the dispenser of justice' 132 days ago ... However, the office we respected threatened us to throw us out. We are in a state that we know that your office is given the opportunity to throw someone out, but when the authority moves away from values such as conscience and empathy, there remains a power that will break communication and shake trust.

"However, the legal order is an invaluable blessing that promises a life in a sense of trust. It is quite easy to threaten to throw out an aggrieved person like me because there is an immense power of premises behind you.

"We have neither the power of the state nor walls to lean on. We only have the voices of the dead who always walk with us.

"It shouldn't be forgotten that justice is one of the most important common values that human beings have been pursuing since their existence."

"We want to protect everyone from unsolved murders"

After Elçi, attorney Beydağ Tıraş-Öneri spoke in the name of the plaintiffs, explaining why they wanted to be involved in the case:

"From the 35th to the 37th page of the indictment of this criminal case; the difficulties in identifying the perpetrators responsible for the murder of Tahir Elçi, the impossibilities of crime scene investigations, why some examinations could not be carried out and why some examinations could not be done are explained. In other words, it is understood that the deficiencies in the activity of allegations and in the investigations have become the subject of the indictment.

"In our law, it is ensured that the person who has been harmed by the crime is also involved in the prosecution.

"We cannot be the prosecution authority as individuals. We have to be able to exist alongside the social claim and for this reason, we want to participate in the criminal case.

"We want to involve in the case because we are of the opinion that we have the 'right to hearing' in the case of the murder of our colleague, lawyer Tahir Elçi from Cizre. Thus, we can involve in this trial effectively and efficiently.

"Beyond seeing how will the damage we have suffered because of the murder or our colleague will be eliminated ... we want to determine the legal fate of the right to defense on this land and to protect everyone from unsolved murders ..."

Requests for particiation

The Diyarbakır Bar Association, the Tahir Elçi Human Rights Foundation, the Gaziantep Bar Association, the Van Bar Association, the Human Rights Agenda Association, the Mardin Bar Association, the Urfa Bar Association, the Ankara Bar Association, the Şırnak Bar Association, the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey, the Association of Lawyers for Freedom, the Progressive Lawyers Association requested to participate in the case.

The court accepted the requests by Türkan Elçi, Mehmet Elçi, Ömer Elçi and the Diyarbakır Bar Association and rejected other requests.

(AS/VK)