Constitutional Court Rules for Retrial in 'Operation Return to Life' Case

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The Constitutional Court has concluded the application of the family of T.Y., who lost one eye because of a hand grenade explosion in the Operation Return to Life conducted at the Bayrampaşa Prison in İstanbul on December 19, 2000.

The court ruled that the right to life which was guaranteed in Article 17/1 of the Constitution is violated and a copy of the verdict shall be sent to İstanbul 2nd Administrative Court for a retrial to remove the outcome of the violation. It rejected the family's request for compensation.

T.Y. was killed in another operation in 2005. His/her mother İmiş Yıldız and father Hüseyin Yıldız made the legal applications instead.

"Tear gas amount was higher than the threshold of death"

T.Y. was at Bayrampaşa Closed Prison to serve the 12 years and 6 months prison term she/he was given by the İstanbul No. 1 State Security Court for "membership of an illegal organization."

T.Y., who was 23 at the time, was staying at ward No. 14 in Block C and was on the 46th day of death fast on the day of the operation.

In the operation in Block C, 12 convicts and arrestees were killed and 50 to 77 inmates were wounded.

According to a report by four experts from the Council of Forensic Medicine, "the amount of tear gas grenades used in C-I cell was quite above the threshold of death."

The report also said that all gunshots were fired from the place where soldiers were present to the ward and no cartridge bullets were found to indicate shots were fired in the opposite direction.

Hand grenade parts left in T.Y.'s eye

T.Y. was sent to Sağmalcılar Hospital Emergency Polyclinic after the operation. A diagnosis was made that there was hemorrhaging in his/her right eye but T.Y. stated that he/she is in dead fast and does not accept any treatment than vitamin B1.

The next day, an eye doctor found in an examination that there was a foreign object in T.Y.'s left eye and treatment for the injured eye began.

T.Y. was transferred to Edirne Type-F Prison on October 25, 2000. An examination at the infirmary of the prison found total vision loss in his/her right eye. T.Y. continued dead fast at the prison and was released on probation on January 8, 2002.

An examination at Trakya University Faculty of Medicine Department of Eye Diseases found that "parts that bounced from hand grenades hit the right eye (one was pulled out, one left inside)."

T.Y. was killed in another operation

T.Y. filed a complaint at the prosecutor's office and stated he/she lost one eye, requesting that those who received and applied the orders for the operation and the institutions that caused the incident to be tried and those concerned be penalized."

T.Y. was among the complainants in the bill of indictment on the 12 killed and 29 wounded inmates of the lawsuit that was opened and is still continuing.

T.Y. was killed on June 17, 2005, in an operation by the security forces. His/her family became complainants.

Council of State overturned ruling for compensation

T.Y. made an application to the Ministry of Interior, demanding 100 thousand liras for pecuniary damages and 50 thousand liras for non-pecuniary damages.

The Administrative Court ruled in 2006 that Yıldız family shall be paid 43,616 liras of compensation but the Council of State overturned the verdict.

The family applied to the Constitutional Court on April 22, 2014. They said in the application that the right to live and the right to a fair trial were violated for the reasons that T.Y. had visual impairment as a result of the operation, the criminal investigation and the trial were not completed in a reasonable time, and the lawsuit for damages was unjustly rejected.

The Constitutional Court accepted only the allegation that the right to life was violated and ruled for a trial on July 3.

The 38th hearing of the trial about the Operation Return to Life will be held at Bakırköy 13th Heavy Penal Court on December 4, 2019. (AS/VK)