Contra Guerrilla State Turkey

Tue Sep 16 05:54:50 BST 1997

             16 September,1997, Copyright © Turkish Daily News

Four accused police freed in Metin Goktepe trial

     * Further postponement: Court hearing in battered journalist case
 adjourns until 9 October due to witnesses' failure to appear

  _________________________________________________________________

 By Hasan Ustun / Turkish Daily News

Afyon - Of the 11 policemen accused of beating journalist Metin
Goktepe to death, four were yesterday released from custody pending
the continuation of trial hearings. When four witnesses, Deniz Ozcan,
Hayati Gungoren, Ilhan Ucar and Ali Ekber Palabiyik, who had been
summoned at the previous hearing to confront the accused police
officers for identification purposes failed to appear, the case was
adjourned until 9 October.

At the hearing which commenced yesterday at 10.00 a.m. at the Afyon
Courts of Juztice under presiding judge Kamil Seref, nine of the
officers who had, at previous hearings, used their right to remain
silent and refused to make statements, declared that they had nothing
further to add to their original statements made in Istanbul. These
were Fedai Korkmaz, Murat Polat, Metin Kusat, Selcuk Bayraktaroglu,
Burhan Koc, Ilhan Sarioglu, Tuncay Uzun and Fikret Kayacan. Seyidi
Battal Kose and Suayip Mutluer said that their previous statements had
been extracted from them by pressure and threats from Civil Inspectors
and Sedat Demir, Assistant Security Director responsible for public
order, who carried out the questioning. They denied the accusations of
involvement in Metin Goktepe's death.

Despite protests from lawyers for the accused that the publication in
newspapers of the photographs of the policemen had removed the
necessary preconditions for identification by witnesses, the court
decided that these witnesses should be present on 9 October. Advocates
for the accused further claimed that the Metin Goktepe event was a
scenario put into effect to remove from the public agenda the
assassination of industrialist Ozdemir Sabanci which took place on the
same day, and that Evrensel, the paper for which Metin Goktepe worked,
was financed by illegal organisations. However, the judge disregarded
these statements after being reminded by lawyers for Metin Goktepe's
family that it was not the journalist who was on trial but the
policemen.

Approximately 1000 "Friends of the Metin Goktepe Trial", including
more than 30 representatives of international media organisations and
human rights associations which have been following events from
abroad, were halted by police barricades when they tried to enter Ordu
Street where the Courts of Justice are located in an attempt to
observe the trial hearing. The Court decided to summon the Civil
Inspectors referred to and police chief Sedat Demir as witnesses, and
released Fedai Korkmaz, Murat Polat, Burhan Koc and Metin Kusat on
bail. Thus the number of policemen who have been left free pending
further hearings has increased to 6.
  _________________________________________________________________

Susurluk gang released, Ciller demands apology

  * A surprise decision to release suspects in a gang linked to the
 state elicits surprise reaction from Ciller

  _________________________________________________________________

 By Hakan Aslaneli / Turkish Daily News

A surprise decision in the Susurluk road accident trial was announced
by the Istanbul State Security Court (DGM) after the trial finished
late Friday evening. Members of the Special Operation Teams including
former Chief of Teams Ibrahim Sahin, accused of membership in a
criminal organisation, were released due to lack of evidence.

The trial was attended by the arrested suspects Ibrahim Sahin, Ayhan
Akca, Ziya Bandirmalioglu, Ayhan Carkin, Ercan Ersoy and Oguz
Yorulmaz.

Five witnesses including Ekrem Marakoglu, an advocate of mysteriously
assassinated King of Casinos Omer Lutfu Topal, were heard by the
court. At around 7 pm the court declared its surprise decision as all
suspects were found innocent of involvement in a criminal
organisation.

Members of the Special Teams Ibrahim Sahin, Ayhan Akca and Ziya
Bandirmalioglu were welcomed by their relatives in front of the Metris
Prison, while the rest of the suspects were not released due to
involvement in the Topal trial.

  Ciller on Susurluk

True Path Party leader Tansu Ciller's statements concerning the
special team people and Ibrahim Sahin, the former deputy director of
the police's Special Activity Office, after the Susurluk court case
was dismissed, were met with surprise. Ciller insisted that Sahin and
the other policemen should be given apologies and didn't hesitate to
show them as heroes.

But remember a photograph taken at the circumcision ceremony for
Sahin's son two years ago, where he and the special team police were
playing arm in arm with Abdullah Catli. There was a Turkish Republic
state's police chief and policemen arm in arm with a defendent in a
murder case and a fugitive from the law. The police whose duty it is
to arrest fugitives and haul them up before the court have been
cleared of charges despite the fact that this photo had been
published.

Yet the former prime minister of Turkey didn't hesitate to describe
the police chief who let himself be pictured with a fugitive as a
persecuted hero. Speaking in Ankara at a meeting of the True Path
Party's chairman's council she said, "Sahin has been one step away
from martyrdom and his pardon must be begged for -- he and the other
members of the special teams must also be restored to their jobs."

The one possible reaction to this behavior is a saying such as
"appearances speak for themselves."
  _________________________________________________________________

-- 
Press Agency Ozgurluk
The Struggle for justice, democracy and human rights in Turkey and Kurdistan
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