Cemil Kırbayır’s file closed due to expiry of statutory limitations

* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA) - Archive

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The decision to reinvestigate the enforced disappearance of Cemil Kırbayır, who was detained from his house in eastern province of Ardahan a day after the military coup on September 12, 1980, has been reversed by the Court of Cassation. Overturning the decision of the Ardahan Heavy Penal Court dated 2014, it has closed the file due to the expiry of statutory limitations.

As reported by Kemal Göktaş from Kısa Dalga, the Court of Cassation has accepted the Justice Ministry's request for "reversal for the sake of law" due to the expiry of statute of limitations in 2002.

The Court of Cassation has argued that the Constitutional amendment dated 2004 and ruling that the expiry of statutory limitations shall not be valid for the crimes of killing committed by public officials and the Constitutional amendment dated 2010 and repealing the provisional Article 15 of the Constitution that granted immunity for the crimes in the September 12 period do not prevent his file from being affected by statutory limitations.

That being the case, the promise of ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to Berfo Kırbayır when he was the Prime Minister has not been kept.

What happened?

A day after the military coup on September 12, 1980, Cemil Kırbayır was taken into custody from his house in Okçu village in Ardahan province. His fate and whereabouts have been unknown since then.

Waging a struggle for justice after her son's disappearance, mother Berfo Kırbayır was among the Saturday Mothers invited by the then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to Dolmabahçe Palace in İstanbul on February 5, 2011. Upon the instruction of Erdoğan, who listened to 103-year-old Berfo Kırbayır, it was decided in the meeting of the Parliamentary Human Rights Investigation Commission on February 9 that a sub-commission be established "with the aim of investigating the fate and whereabouts of the people who were allegedly enforced disappeared."

A 350-page report was prepared following the investigation of the Commission. In the conclusion part of the report, it was written, "Our Commission believes that Cemil Kırbayır was tortured in custody, that he lost his life as a result of this torture and that his body was disappeared by the public officials who did the interrogation that led to his death."

The Commission then applied to the Kars Chief Public Prosecutor's Office and filed a complaint against the then executives and officials of the Security Directorate, National Intelligence Organization and Martial Law Command, sending all information, statements and documents it had about the issue to the prosecutor's office through the Ministry of Justice.

In response to this, the Kars Chief Public Prosecutor's Office launched a new investigation no. 2011/899. A decision of non-prosecution no. 2002/911 was found in the archive during the investigation. Six years after Cemil Kırbayır was disappeared in custody, the Kars Chief Public Prosecutor's Office launched an investigation, but it ended in non-prosecution in 2002.

Though the related decision of non-prosecution was not even notified to the family, the case was closed. Right afterwards, the family appealed to the Ardahan Heavy Penal Court and demanded the reversal of the decision of non-prosecution. The court removed the decision.

On November 14, 2019, the Kars Chief Public Prosecutor's Office sent the file to the Penal Affairs Directorate of the Justice Ministry with the request for its "reversal for the sake of law" and demanded that the ruling of the Ardahan Heavy Penal Court reversing the decision of non-prosecution by the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office in 2002 be reversed.

The Justice Ministry appealed to the Court of Cassation on February 25, 2020 and requested "the reversal for the sake of law" due to the expiry of statutory limitations. The 8th Penal Chamber of the Court of Cassation has reversed the decision as requested by the Ministry and closed the file of the enforced disappearance of Cemil Kırbayır. (RT/SD)