BİTLİS, NORTHERN KURDISTAN
Abbas Gürbüz, who lives in the Hizan district of Bitlis in northern Kurdistan, was sentenced to 7 years and 6 months in prison on the grounds of the testimony of an ‘anonymous witness’ that the court could not reach despite all their attempts.
A lawsuit was filed against Abbas Gürbüz on the allegations of “being a member of a terrorist organization.” He was sentenced to 7 years and 6 months in prison on the grounds of a testimony made by an imaginary anonymous witness and tape recordings which were decided were inadmissible.
Gürbüz, was detained on October 12, 2017, was arrested and placed in Bitlis Type-E Closed Prison. A lawsuit was filed against him for being a “member of a terrorist organization” a year later.
Testifying about Gürbüz, the supposed witness M.N.K. identified Gürbüz among the pictures of 550 different people shown to him at the police station. An open witness, who lives in the same city as Gürbüz, claimed that Gürbüz provided logistical support to PKK members. However, in his testimony before the court, the same witness stated that he knew Gürbüz only because they lived in the same neighborhood, and said that the other statements were fabricated by the anti-terror management branch and did not belong to him.
Likewise, the four people who appeared to have made statements against Gürbüz before denied having said anything during their investigations.
According to the information in the indictment, the anonymous witness coded “BL12A38N” applied to the Office of the Chief Public Prosecutor on December 13, 2016 to “declare their knowledge about those involved in organizational activities”. Upon this, the anonymous witness, who was included in the witness protection program, said about Gürbüz, “He owns a coffee house in the Hizan center. He is linked to the organization members in rural areas. He provides vehicles when vital materials will be taken to the organization. He organizes youths in the center of Hizan to demonstrate ”.
Gürbüz stated that, contrary to the statements of the anonymous witness, he did not own a coffee house.
Very anonymous witness
During the trial phase, an interim order was issued for the anonymous witness to be heard before the court. However, all correspondence during the two hearings was responded to negatively. Finally, at the verdict hearing of the case, the court decided that “the decision to hear the anonymous witness before the court, whose address could not be determined despite all the investigations and therefore could not be heard as a witness, should be abandoned and contented with his statement in the preliminary investigation.”
The court concluded that the testimonies of the witnesses who made statements at the investigation stage, but declared that they did not recognize Gürbüz during the hearing, could not be credited with the allegation that “they had changed their statements aimed at rescuing the defendant from crime”.
Based on the statement of the anonymous witness, who could not be reached, the court sentenced Gürbüz to 7 years and 6 months in prison for “membership of an illegal organization.”
