The trial on the so-called "Return to Life" operation at the Bayrampaşa (Istanbul) Prison was continued before the Bakırköy 13th High Criminal Court on Friday (2 December). 28 prisoners, including twelve inmates of the Bayrampaşa Prison, and two soldiers were killed during the operation at various prisons in December 2000.
The "death fasts" of hundreds of political prisoners were ended violently during the operation. The Prisoners had protested against a transfer from large wardens to F-type cells with only 3 or 4 prisoners.
Two people as members of the delegation who talked to convicts before the operations in order to convince them to give up their death fasts were heard as witnesses at the seventh hearing of the Bayrampaşa trial.
Convicts Mehmet Boztepe, Emin Gökdurna and Türker Kazak who were incarcerated in ward C 11 at the time of the operations talked about their experiences. The application for joint plaintiff status of Fatma Ördekçi, mother of prisoner Murat Ördekçi who lost his life during the operation, and Mehmet Ördekçi was accepted.
Court President Hayri Özdal ruled to obtain the videos taken by the Gendarmerie General Command (JGK) in the course of the operation and also summoned the defendants to the next hearing. Autopsy photographs and other visuals are going to be requested from the Forensic Medicine Institute.
Additionally, reports on records of the scene from the years 2005 and 2011 sent by the JGK will be returned to the command with the request for explanation. The Gendarmerie will face a criminal complaint if they refuse to forward information on the pictures and records.
Ret. Major Zeki Bingöl who was on duty during the operation had testified that every moment of the operation was filmed. The names of five majors, including Bingöl, who allegedly signed the minutes on the incident was sent to court by the JGK in a document dated 27 October 2005 and signed by Provincial Gendarmerie Command Ünal Karaosmanoğlu.
A record sent to court in 2011 on the other hand comprised the registration numbers of five persons. Three of these numbers "did not fit to any personnel" and the other two were different from the names disclosed in the document sent in 2005.
In a statement made to bianet, Bingöl claimed that the names of the persons who actually organized the operation were known. Yet, they were not disclosed in order to protect these people and to prolong trial procedures.
"They want the case to be closed by prescription. It is clear who directed the operation from the signatures at the bottom of that record", Bingöl said.
The court decided to listen to Ferzan Çitici and Fikret Ünalan, two prosecutors who did not sign the minutes of the incident, and also Bingöl at the coming hearing on 25 May 2012.
"They were saved from burning just by chance"
Witnesses Metin Bakkalcı, member of the Turkish Human Rights Foundation (TİHV), and lawyer Yücel Sayman were heard at the Friday hearing as part of the delegation who talked to the prisoners before the incident. They had tried to reach an agreement with representatives of the prisoners.
Bakkalçı, former President of the Turkish Medical Chamber (TTB), and Sayman, Head of the Istanbul Bar Association, agreed, "There was important progress during the talks. There was no resistance in prison. The prison was in control of the state and the operation was carried out when we were about to reach an agreement".
They said that the prisoners at the C 11 Ward of the Bayrampaşa prison were all stuck in the ward. They were saved from burning only because a fire fighter saw them by chance, the witnesses stated.
In their statements as plaintiffs they put forward that Murat Ördekçi was shot at his foot and that he had to wait in the air shaft for hours instead of being taken to hospital. It was claimed that he could have survived if he had received help.
Bakkalcı reminded the fact that Ördekçi's family opened a trial and was paid TL 109,000 (€50,000) in compensation. "Back then, the court said that the state was entirely responsible for this incident".
Furthermore, Bakkalçı stated, "As I have witnessed during our talks, the inside of the prison was in control of the prison administration and the state. There was no resistance as alleged at the time. Hikmet Sami Türk, then Justice Minister, had announced at parliament that the transfer to F type prisons was postponed until a social consensus would be found and architectural changes would have been made to have a reasonable number of people living together".
"There was a very high probability that we would have reached a positive conclusion if the negotiations had been continued. This was not allowed. Later on, Saadettin Tantan, then Minister of the Interior, announced that the operation had been prepared for a year and that it was planned to the finest detail". (AS)
