Turkish court acquits three police officer defendants in Tahir Elçi case

A Turkish court has acquitted three police officer defendants, charged with “causing death by conscious negligence,” in the case of murdered bar head Tahir Elçi.

Wednesday June 12 2024 06:11 pm

Evrim Deniz / DUVAR

A Diyarbakır court on June 12 acquitted three police officers charged with “causing death by conscious negligence” in the case surrounding bar head Tahir Elçi’s death.

Tahir Elçi, who was then head of the Diyarbakır Bar Association, was killed in broad daylight on Nov. 28, 2015, while speaking to the media to call for an end to the ongoing conflict between Turkish security forces and the PKK.

Elçi’s press conference was interrupted when two alleged members of the PKK ran through the scene, moments after they had shot and killed two police officers nearby.

Police who had been at the press conference opened fire as the pair ran past, and several shots were fired. During the commotion, Elçi was shot from the back of his head and died at the scene.

The 11th hearing of the case was held in the Diyarbakır 10th High Criminal Court.

In the final opinion submitted by the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor's Office on April 25, it requested the police officer defendants’ acquittal because "it was impossible to determine which police officer's bullet caused the death."

The prosecutors requested fugitive defendant Uğur Yakışır to be sentenced over “killing two police officers and disrupting the unity and integrity of the state.”

Before the trial, Diyarbakır Bar Association head Nahit Eren said, “The attitude of the court so far and the prosecutor's final opinion unfortunately makes us feel that the court wants the case to end with impunity.”

Eren said the case is not at the stage where a final opinion can be given as there is still evidence that the court should investigate, collect, and examine to shed light on the murder.

During the hearing, Tahir Elçi’s brother Mehmet Elçi said, “There's 13 seconds of footage missing. It was deleted. Prosecutors threatened several people and forced them to testify against Tahir Elçi. As the court panel, you did your best to close the case from the beginning. Now the defendants have been acquitted. This is not right”

After Elçi, Nahit Eren said, “This case is a political case. This case is a political assassination. I am not saying this, the prime minister of that period came and said in Diyarbakır that this murder was an assassination. But despite this, we could not listen to that prime minister (in this trial). Until today, the prosecution has not had the courage to shed light on the case. You even refused to conduct an investigation at the crime scene.”

The lawyer Orhan Kemal Cengiz said, “You didn't conduct an investigation. You are not impartial either. Everyone here played a role in covering up this murder. There are three cameras from the moment of the murder. But the police camera lacks 12 seconds. 20 seconds of the Post Office camera is missing. The footage from a kebab restaurant is missing. These are not coincidences. They were deliberately blacked out. Why would a public prosecutor's office produce false witnesses? Systematically, requests to move the case forward were rejected. Everything is suspicious, not in accordance with the ordinary course of life. You told us that two policemen were killed. We said you didn't even look into how they were killed.”

Lawyer Tuğçe Duygu Köksal said, “According to one witness, there were other defendants on that street. But the court rejected such an important piece of evidence. The video of the moment of the massacre should have been examined again and again. We have repeatedly said that the whole incident cannot be reduced to these three defendants. We said ‘listen to the intelligence officers and put them on trial,’ but this was not done. Since 2022, the suspects in this case have not been interviewed.”

Other bar heads from different provinces also took the floor in the hearing.

The lawyers and Elçi family left the court before the ruling was announced. After leaving the court house, the group went to the Four-Legged Minaret where Elçi was shot.

The court acquitted police officers Sinan Tabur, Fuat Tan, and Mesut Sevgi.

Elçi’s assassination

Elçi’s press conference was interrupted when two alleged members of the PKK ran through the scene, moments after they had shot and killed two police officers nearby.

Police who had been at the press conference opened fire as the pair ran past, and several shots were fired. During the commotion, Elçi was shot from the back of his head and died at the scene.

A frame-by-frame analysis of the moment of the camera footage by the Forensic Architecture research agency found that the three officers were the most likely suspects, ruling out the possibility of alleged PKK members shooting at Elçi.

The officers were included in the case as defendants after the report and are accused of “causing death by conscious negligence.”

However, an expert report by the state-run Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) alleged that the security video footage was doctored, demanding its dismissal as evidence.