The perpetrator who caused 5-year-old Efe's death ‘protected by impunity’

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After the police officer who had hit 5-year-old Efe Tektetkin with an armored vehicle in Turkey's Kurdish-majority Diyarbakır province in 2019 and caused his death was acquitted, the Diyarbakır Bar Association's Child Rights Center has released a written statement and said, "Efe Tektekin's perpetrator has been protected with the shield of impunity".

The Bar Association has briefly stated the following:

"The final hearing of the trial of the perpetrator of 5-year-old Efe Tektekin, who had lost his life after being hit by an armored vehicle on September 11, 2019, was held on March 29, 2022. In the file where our center's request for involvement in the trial was accepted and which had been followed since the first day, the perpetrator has been given a ruling of acquittal 'on the grounds that he did not have intention or negligence'.

In the process leading up to impunty, the expert report which was issued while the file was at the investigation phase and prepared by the law enforcement found the perpetrator partly negligent while 5-year-old Efe Tektekin was found primarily negligent.

"In the report prepared by the Diyarbakır Forensic Medicine Institution at the prosecution phase, the father of Efe Tektekin was found primarily negligent while no negligence was detected on the part of the perpetrator.

"In the report prepared by the Specialized Board of the İstanbul Forensic Medicine Institution upon our objections, the perpetrator was found partly negligent while Efe Tektekin and his father were found primarily negligent.

"The fact that the perpetrator is acquitted despite the finding of a partial negligence on the part of the perpetrator in the related report is in the nature of undermining society's and the family's belief in justice.

"That the living spaces and playgrounds of children are filled with armored vehicles across the region on the grounds of security has a negative impact on children's daily lives and mental health and causes them to live in a climate of violence and fear and violations of right to life.

In the trials over the deaths of children caused by the uncontrolled and unnecessary use of the law enforcement's armored vehicles, perpetrators are protected with the shield of impunity, which encourages law enforcement officers about culpable acts.

"In the way we have indicated, we declare to the public that we will not get used to the state policy and judicial practice in the files where public officials are perpetrators and we will keep on struggling". (AÖ/SD)