Şenyaşar family case: Brother, relatives of AKP deputy arrested for 'murder'

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Four of the 11 people who were detained for the killing of the members of Şenyaşar family in 2018 in the Kurdish-majority southern province of Urfa have been arrested.

Among those arrested are Celal Yıldız, the brother of MP İbrahim Halil Yıldız of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), and İbrahim Şimşek and Mikail Şimşek, his relatives. The other arrested suspect is Müslüm Yıldız.

Eleven people were detained on Saturday (April 23). Two of them, Osman Şah Yıldız and Osman Yıldız, also relatives of the MP, were released after giving statements at the prosecutor's office.

The prosecutor's office referred nine detainees to a penal judgeship of peace, demanding their arrest. The judgeship released five suspects on probation and ordered the arrest of the four of them.

Members of the Şenyaşar family have been keeping a "justice watch" for over a year now for the punishment of those who killed their relatives.

What happened?

During the election campaign of AKP Urfa MP İbrahim Halil Yıldız in Suruç, Urfa on June 14, 2018, an attack turned into an armed conflict, which claimed the lives of Yıldız's brother Mehmet Şah Yıldız, shop owner Hacı Esvet Şenyaşar and his sons Adil and Celal Şenyaşar.

Having lost his father and two brothers and been wounded himself in the incident, Fadıl Şenyaşar was discharged from hospital and detained on June 17. He was then arrested and sent to prison.

Demanding justice for two sons, husband and her arrested son, Emine Şenyaşar and her son Ferit Şenyaşar, who survived the attack, have been keeping a "justice watch" in front of the courthouse.

There has been a confidentiality order on the file of the investigation into the attack for 3 years, 3 months. The second appeal of the Şenyaşar family against the "confidentiality" order on the investigation into the second attack at the Suruç Public Hospital was rejected on April 21, 2021.

The Constitutional Court, to which the family appealed, has not yet given its decision. One of the demands raised by the family on their justice watch is the removal of this "confidentiality" order.

(RT/VK)