Istanbul 85th Assize Court ruled that a ruling reached by another court was insufficient in the case of Uğur Kurt, a municipal worker who was coincidentally visiting a cemevi for funeral in Istanbul’s Okmeydanı and died of police fire during a nearby protest dedicated to Berkin Elvan.
The aforementioned court, rejecting the charges of “neglected murder”, advised another high criminal court to charge the defendant policeman with “possible premeditated murder” - a crime that imposes a prison sentence up to 20 and 25 years.
Prosecutor charged with “negligence”
The incident took place on May 22, 2014 when Uğur Kurt attended a funeral in Istanbul’s Alevi-populated Okmeydanı neighborhood. While police fire during another protest intervention left Kurt killed, prosecutors claimed that the suspected policeman had no fault, charging him with 3 to 6 years of prison for “neglected murder” according to Turkish Penal Code Article 85.
Despite supervisor warning
On the other hand, Kurt family and their lawyers objected to the charges for policeman S.K.
They also held a press conference showing a video footage on the moment of the incident where the supervisor of the suspected policeman shouted him not to “fire bullets” - a call unfollowed by S.K.
“We can clearly hear that the supervisor tells him not to fire his gun but the prosecutor doesn’t hear this,” advocate Turgut Kazan said. (AS/BM)
* Click here to read the article in Turkish.
