Murder Suspect Police Officer Released

Police officer Oral Emre Atar, who was under arrest for having shot a young man dead who did not obey his orders to stop, is released amid angry protests, in the first hearing of the trial on Monday.  

Baran Tursun, who was driving his luxury jeep was shot in the midnight, 24 November, he lost his life in hospital five days later. The police claimed that they had been following Tursun, who was driving with his two friends, and that he did not obey the order to stop. The officer on trial claimed that he fell and that a shot was released from the gun because of the fall. However, one bullet hit Tursun in the neck, and three other bullets were found in the car.

Police intimidation 

Lütfü Demirkapi, president of the Izmir branch of the Human Rights Association (IHD) attended the hearing. He said, "There was a high level of security at the court, to the extent that people were made uncomfortable. When the high level chiefs of the Izmir Police Department came, the court was crammed full with police. They want to threaten. I could not bear it and left the hearing."

Evidence being manufactured

Demirkapi told bianet that the hearing started in a tense manner at 9.15 am. He said that the statement of the police officer who caused the death was very different from what the public had been told: "Evidence has been destroyed, and evidence to match the scenario has been produced."

Demirkapi said that, following a request by the lawyers, the judge asked witness police officers to draw the barrier, which Tursun allegedly drove through; the three police officers drew exactly the same diagram. In addition, the judge aided the witnesses by correcting statements which clashed with others.

The police, so Demirkapi, was trying to pass the event off as a car accident, but a doctor in hospital saw the bullet in Tursun's head when he requested a tomography: "I do not know what will happen", he said pessimistically. (NZ/TK/AG)