UN Rapporteur: Tahir Elçi's murder must not go unpunished

Acquittal of the accused police officers

The prosecutor's indictment regarding the 2015 killing of Diyarbakır Bar Association Chair Tahir Elçi was presented to the court on April 25.

Elçi was shot and killed while speaking to reporters in Sur, Diyarbakır. He was calling for an end to the urban conflict in the Kurdish regions, a plea that was interrupted by a shootout between police officers and Kurdish armed militia. Who shot Elçi could not be determined to this day.

The indictment requested the acquittal of police officers, S.T., F.T., and M.S., who are being tried without detention on charges of "causing death by conscious negligence.” The case concerning the other suspect, Uğur Yakışır, was separated due to his fugitive status.

"No footage of the moment of shooting"

According to the indictment, the defendants denied the allegations against them in their defenses, and it was stated that no footage of the moment Elçi was shot could be found in the camera recordings.

"No footage showing the moment when the deceased Bar Association President Tahir Elçi was shot could be obtained from the cameras of PTT Balıkçılarbaşı Branch and Mardin Kebap Evi near the scene of the incident, as well as the cameras belonging to the Intelligence and Photo Film Branch Directorate and images obtained from KGYS, news agencies, and open sources."

Additionally, it was noted that none of the public officials, lawyers, tradesmen, and press members, whose statements were taken as witnesses, had any information about the moment of the incident.

"12-second gap in the footage"

The indictment stated that all camera footage from the shops around the scene of the incident, as well as the cameras used by law enforcement officers and journalists at the scene, were examined, and it was determined that there was a "12-second gap" between the frames where Elçi was last seen on camera and the frames where he was found lying motionless on the ground after the incident. "No video footage showing the moment of shooting was found."

"Bullet of unknown origin"

The prosecutor wrote that when expert witness reports, Forensic Medicine Institute reports, Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) reports, crime scene examination reports, and autopsy reports were evaluated together, it was concluded that despite all research conducted, it could not be determined from which direction the bullet that caused Elçi's death came during the armed shootout between the police officers and PKK members:

"The reports of Forensic Architecture, University of London, dated December 13, 2018, stated that there were direct fire lines from the defendant police officers to Elçi and that they fired their weapons multiple times, and only M.S. among the defendant police officers had a clear and unobstructed fire line to the deceased. However, it was stated that it could not be determined definitively which of the police officer defendants was responsible for Elçi's death."

Likewise, it was added that according to the expert witness, report prepared as of October 2, 2017, by Prof. Dr. Ümit Biçer, together with the Forensic Medicine Institute report dated March 18, 2019, there was no issue to be added to or changed in the decision covered by the report dated March 20, 2016, and it was stated that it was medically impossible to determine from which weapon and at what angle the shot that caused Elçi's death was fired.

Furthermore, it was included in the expert report prepared as a result of the inspection conducted by the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor's Office that it was medically and physically impossible to determine from which weapon the shot that caused Elçi's death was fired.