‘We won’t let impunity in Tahir Elçi murder’

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Tomorrow (November 28) marks the 5th year since Diyarbakır Bar Association Chair Tahir Elçi was shot to death in Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeastern province of Diyarbakır.

The trial over Tahir Elçi murder could begin only five years after the incident. The attorneys of the Elçi family are of the opinion that there was no effective inquiry during the investigation or prosecution.

Speaking to bianet about the issue, lawyer Nahit Eren says, "As the attorneys of Mr. Elçi, the Elçi Family and the Diyarbakır Bar Association, we will not let the prosecution be conducted in a deficient and ineffective manner, as was the case in the investigation."

Lawyer Eren underlines that the indictment must not mention only the murder that took place on November 28, 2015, but the process leading to his moment of death, including the lynch campaign launched against him.

"We want the process that unfolded until his moment of death to be an item on the indictment's agenda as well. The judiciary was also an instrument in the lynch campaign, they launched an investigation and he was detained. We believe that this process needs to be addressed in all aspects in order to solve this murder. We do not think that this incident is independent from the murder, it should have been a subject in the indictment."

'It was treated like an ordinary murder'

At a television program before his death, Diyarbakır Bar Association Chair Elçi said, "PKK [Kurdistan Workers' Party] is not a terrorist organization," which was followed by a lynch campaign against him by mainstream media. Amid these reactions, a warrant was issued against Elçi, he was taken into custody, brought to İstanbul to give his statement and released afterwards.

Nahit Eren notes that as a reflection of the state's policy of impunity, Tahir Elçi murder was treated like an ordinary murder case. Eren says that they will struggle to ensure that his murder will not end in impunity.

What was done? What not?

Eren also shares the following information as to what happened at the phases of investigation and prosecution in the Tahir Elçi case:

Request for recusal rejected

"The investigation was not conducted effectively; at the first hearing, the court board acted in such a way that it did not even let us express our requests for identifying the real perpetrators. Our requests were rejected at the investigation phase.

"For this reason, we lodged a request for recusal (challenge of judge); however, this demand of ours was, unfortunately, rejected as well by the upper court. The upper court did not accept our argument that the attitude of the Diyarbakır 10th Heavy Penal Court cast a shadow on its impartiality."

Course of the file set with anonymous witness

"The case against the perpetrators of the killed police officers and that of Tahir Elçi murder are heard in the same file, which is not right. We see the two incidents separately, but the fact that they are both in the same file raises suspicions about whether the prosecution will go on efficiently or not.

"A month before the hearing on October 21, the file took a different course with the unanimous witness statement. The anonymous witness said that the member of the organization committed the murder. It shows that there is an attempt to take this file to another course.

"In fact, the report prepared in London indicated that police officers might be the perpetrators. However, five years after the incident, the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, based on the statement of a unanimous witness, wrote the indictment in such a way to suggest that an organization member committed the murder.

Records of three separate cameras are 'missing'

"We see that judicial bodies do not act in an attempt to solve the murder in the truest sense of the term. This was a murder commiitted before cameras.

"Despite this, several video records are 'missing', the investigation was not conducted properly. For instance, The 13-second part of the camera footage captured by the Security Directorate's Photo-Film Bureau is missing. It has been detected that the cameras on the minaret were broken as well. The footage of the State Post Services (PTT) could not be accessed, either.

"All these show that the investigation was not effectively conducted, it raises suspicions about an attempt to prevent the murder from being solved fully.

'Court did not even listen the demands'

"We submitted requests to the prosecutor's office to rectify all such deficiencies, but they have not been rectified. And the court did not even let us express our demands, let alone not accepting them.

"While Türkan Elçi was an intervening party, she was not even allowed to talk. While we, as the attorneys, found an opportunity twice to make a statement as to the indictment, it announced that it would first take the statements of the defendants and it would proceed like that.

"The Presiding Judge did not let us say that this was not in line with the due procedure or let us express our requests."

(AS/SD)