Police officer says ‘enough gas was used’ on the day Metin Lokumcu died

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Over 10 years ago, on May 31, 2011, the police intervened in a protest demonstration in Artvin's Hopa in the Black Sea region before the rally of the then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Affected by the pepper gas, Metin Lokumcu had a heart attack and lost his life at the hospital.

The trial over the death of retired teacher Metin Lokumcu was held at the Trabzon 2nd High Criminal Court today (December 20). The court board has accepted the Lokumcu family's lawyers' requests for hearing the defendants at court and adjourned the trial until January 6-7, 2022. 

While 13 police officers, including senior ones, are on trial over, nine defendants attended the hearing via the Audio and Visual Information System (SEGBİS). Lokumcu family, their lawyers and lawyers from several bar associations across Turkey as well as the representatives of Human Rights Association (İHD), Lawyers for Freedom Association (ÖHD) and Monitoring for Equal Rights Association (ESHID) followed the hearing.

Bars' request for intervention rejected

After the hearing started, bar associations made a request for intervening in the case. İzmir Bar Chair Özkan Yücel expressed his request for intervening in the case as the Chair of İzmir Bar, saying, "Metin Lokumcu struggled for us, for your children, for our children. People are killed not only with bullets but with justice delayed as well. We will keep on being here."

Representatives from other bar associations reiterated Yücel's statement as well and made a request for intervening in the case.

İbrahim Bilmez from the ÖHD also said, "Defending Metin Lokumcu means defending society. Penalize the murderers."

The court board rejected the bar associations' requests for involvement "because they were not aggrieved by the offense charged."

'Bring the defendants to court'

Sercan Aran, a lawyer for the Lokumcu family, took the floor and said that it was not a right method to allow the defendants to attend the hearing via video conference by using the SEGBİS system:

"Defendants cannot be heard via the SEGBİS as part of this file. As required by the principles of being face-to-face, the defendants should appear before the judge. This hearing should be held fairly.

"And you should show this to the public. But the way things stand, we cannot say that a fair trial is being held here. We will show video and photos to the defendants, but they will be unable to identify.

"We cannot even see who the defendants are from here. We cannot talk about a fair trial here. We cannot discuss the material and immaterial state of this crime without the defendants being here.

"Nine defendants are present now. They are connected from different provinces. It is impossible to talk about a fair trial in such an environment. Judges generally do not hold fair trials in such cases.

"We have suffered from this. You should bring the defendants here so that we can see whether you hold a fair trial or not.

"As far as we can partly see from here, we cannot see who the defendants are or what they are doing. These defendants are law enforcement officers and other defendants may be added to them depending on the fate of the file. We will be unable to ask questions to the defendants right now. We demand that the defendants be brought to court for this reason."

'I don't remember'

The court board rejected the requests for bringing the defendant police officers before the court. Following this interim decision, defendant Muhsin Armağan started making his defense. He briefly said:

"I was the Artvin Security Director back then. Mr. Prime Minister [Erdoğan] would come. I checked the scene of the incident. While we were waiting for the Prime Minister to arrive, we were informed that a separate group gathered in Hopa district center. They sent Mr. sub-governor there. While we were waiting there to welcome him, another phone call came.

"There was information that the group who gathered provoked the opposite group. We received information that the opposite side attacked with stones and sticks. They sent me to the district center as well.

"When I went there, I was informed that 'a wounded person was hospitalized and he had had a heart attack.' I did not see the person; I request my acquittal. I do not know. Who gave the order to spray the gas? My vice director did. I do not remember his name."

When lawyer Meriç Eyüboğlu asked, "Who gave the order for an intervention with gas? Was it the sub-governor," the defendant police officers said, "The head of the Anti-Riot Police decides on it because they are the ones who are subjected to attacks with sticks and stones."

Lawyers reiterated their requests about SEGBİS

The lawyers of the Lokumcu family addressed the presiding judge and said, "You are not a director here and we are not players. You tell the defendant what to say. There is a make-believe trial going on here. We want a face-to-face trial to be held. May they come here. May they defend themselves here. This is our joint request. The trial does not proceed soundly."

To the question "how much gas was used on that day", the defendant police officer responded, "Sufficient amount of."

The court board has accepted the Lokumcu family's lawyers' requests for hearing the defendants at court and adjourned the trial until January 6-7.

What happened?

Retired teacher Metin Lokumcu lost his life after having a heart attack as he was affected by the pepper gas used by the police and the blows he received during the incidents that occured during and after the rally of the then PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Hopa, Artvin on May 31, 2011.

On the day of the incident, Lokumcu stood in front of the police with his hands behind his back, calling out to the police, "Come on, take me and save the country." This picture was then reported in the press.

70 people were detained as part of the investigation into the incidents and 16 of the detained were arrested. These persons were released afterwards.

Following Lokumcu's death, the then Prime Minister Erdoğan talked about him at the publicity meeting of the "Turkey is Ready, Target is 2023" project in İstanbul. "And, in the meantime, one of them had a heart attack... I don't know his identity... But I don't feel the need to dwell on it... He has died of a heart attack," said Erdoğan about Lokumcu.

Case transferred to high criminal court

Upon the request of the local court in Hopa, the 5th Penal Chamber of the Court of Cassation gave a decision on December 21, 2020 and ruled that the trial over the death of Metin Lokumcu should be transferred to the Trabzon Penal Court of First Instance "for security reasons."

In the justification of this decision, the Court of Cassation referred to the "possibility that social incidents and provocation might arise."

The 5th Penal Chamber of the Court of Cassation transferred the case to Trabzon as it came to the conclusions that "social incidents might erupt and the parties might face serious threats even when security measures were taken, which might lead to a failure to hold the trial in an orderly manner and pose a clear and imminent danger to public security."

At the hearing in June 2021, the Trabzon 2nd Penal Court of First Instance gave a decision of lack of jurisdiction. The police officers who were on trial over the death of Lokumcu appealed against this decision foreseeing the case to be held by a high criminal court. With their appeals rejected, the trial is now held at the Trabzon 2nd High Criminal Court. (EMK/SD)