Police Officer Tried for Shooting Kemal Kurkut Not Arrested

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The third hearing of the trial on Kemal Kurkut, who was shot to death by a police officer during Newroz celebrations in Turkey's southeastern province of Diyarbakır in 2017, was held in the Diyarbakır 7th Heavy Penal Court today (September 20).

While the defendant police officer Y.Ş. and his attorney did not attend the hearing, the request of arrest submitted for Y.Ş. has also been rejected.

The report requested from the Forensic Medicine Institute regarding the direction, from which the fire was opened, has not reached the court yet.

"Witnesses who could potentially be defendants themselves were not listened"

As reported by Mezopotamya Agency, the attorney of the Kurkut family Reyhan Yalçındağ said,

"When the 118 video footages captured in the crime scene are examined, it is seen that the bullets which caused the death of Kurkut point to three people. However, two of these three people were not listened to even as witnesses. After some time, these law enforcement officers are appointed to other places. We could not even listen to the witnesses who could potentially be defendants themselves."

"A murder committed before the eyes of cameras"

Attorney Mehmet Emin Aktar also stated,

"We are repeating our requests of arrest because the policy of impunity still continues. We are talking about a murder which was committed before the eyes of cameras. There are thousands of public agents in this city authorized to use weapons. If the policy of impunity continues, how can we feel ourselves safe? In the name of this society and justice, we request arrest."

Request of arrest has been rejected again

The court board has rejected the request that the defendant police officer Y.Ş. be arrested. The court has also ruled that a precept shall be written to the Security Directorate to identify the police officers, to whom the attorneys of Kurkut's family have referred to as witnesses.

What happened?

Kemal Kurkut was shot to death by police at security check point on Evrim Alataş street near Newroz Park in Turkey's southeastern Diyarbakır province on March 21, 2017.

In the photos taken at the incident time, Kurkut was seen bare-chested quarreling with police at the check point and starting to run passing through the check point. As some police fired in the air, some others fired on him.

dihaber reported that Kurkut was shot despite a police chief ordering "Don't shoot". Diyarbakır Governorship declared that Kurkut had a knife in his hand, he was "suspected to be a suicide attacker", and an investigation has been launched into the incident.

Born in Adıyaman, Kurkut was a student at İnönü University Fine Arts Faculty Department of Music. His funeral was held on March 22 in Batalgazi district of Malatya province. (AS/SD)