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Subject: Way cleared for re-trial of police who killed journalist in Turkey
From: Press Agency Ozgurluk <ozgurluk at xs4all.nl>
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Date: 17 Jul 1998 18:47:37 +0200
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   ANKARA, July 17 (AFP) - An appeal court Friday quashed verdicts  
against five police officers in Turkey convicted of killing a 
journalist in their custody, clearing the way for a re-trial and 
possible harsher punishment for the culprits. 
   In a case that has been closely followed in Turkey and abroad,  
critics of the original trial had condemned the verdict and 
sentences handed down as too lenient. 
   The five were sentenced to seven and a half years prison each by  
a court in Afyon, western Turkey, on being convicted of the 
manslaughter of Metin Goktepe, 27, who worked for the leftwing daily 
Evrensel. 
   Six other police officers were acquitted for lack of evidence.  
   Witnesses said Goktepe was beaten to death by a group of police  
officers after being arrested on January 8 1996 while covering the 
funeral of two prisoners killed in a riot at an Istanbul jail. 
   His body was later found in Eyup district, on the European side  
of Istanbul. 
   The court of cassation said in its ruling Friday that there had  
been procedural errors in the original trial, citing insufficient 
investigation and the fact that witnesses called by lawyers for the 
dead man's family were not heard, the Anatolia news agency 
reported. 
   At the trial, lawyers for Goktepe's family had sought a verdict  
based on a charge of murder with torture, but the court in Afyon 
based its decision on the penal code article referring to 
manslaughter, which carries a lighter sentence. 
   The prosecution had sought prison terms of eight to 15 years  
against the five principal defendants, and the acquittal of the 
others. The court sentenced the five to 12 years in prison, but a 
law on remission of sentences was immediately applied cutting that 
to seven and a half. 
   Human rights activists condemned the sentences as far too  
lenient. 
   The trial opened in October 1996 in Aydin, in the west of the  
country, rather than in Istanbul, where the crime took place, 
officially for security reasons. It was later moved to Afyon, again 
ostensibly for security reasons. 
   A total of 48 officers were originally charged in connection  
with the case. Last year, the case against the 11 principal 
defendants was separated from the others. The fate of the other 37, 
accused of complicity, will be resolved at a later date. 
  	   	

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