Mainstream News On Contra-Guerrilla

[kurd-l at burn.ucsd.edu]

From: Arm The Spirit <ats at locust.etext.org>
Subject: Mainstream News On Contra-Guerrilla State Turkey

Turkish Daily News
September 16, 1997

Four Accused Police Freed In Metin Goktepe Trial

Further postponement: Court hearing in battered journalist case
adjourns until October 9th 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 October 9th.
     At the hearing which commenced yesterday at 10.00 a.m. at the
Afyon Courts of Justice 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 October 9th. 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 organizations. 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 1,000 "Friends of the Metin Goktepe Trial",
including more than 30 representatives of international media
organizations 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 six.


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 organization, 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 organization.
     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 defendant 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
http://www.ozgurluk.org
mailto:ozgurluk at xs4all.nl

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