CENTRAL NEWS
Kemal Kurkut was a university student who was murdered by the fascist Turkish police during the Newroz celebration in Amed in 2017. Today, Kemal’s murderer, police officer YŞ, walked free.
The 12th hearing of the trial on the murder of Kemal Kurkut, who was killed by the police during the Newroz celebration in Amed 2017, was held at Diyarbakır 7th High Criminal Court. Turkish courts acquitted the main suspect in the case, a police office named YŞ, who was facing a sentence of three to nine years in prison for “deliberately causing death by negligence”.
Kemal Kurkut was martyred after being shot by police during the 2017 Newroz celebrations in Amed. Issuing a statement after his death, the Diyarbakır Governorship had announced that Kurkut was shot “on suspicion that he was a suicide bomber”.
The day after the incident, Dihaber published images of the incident and police officers YŞ and OM were detained. One of the suspects, OM, was released by the prosecutor after it was established that the bullets that caused Kurkut’s death came from the gun of police officer YŞ.
The police officer, however, was released by the Criminal Judge of Peace “on condition of judicial control”.
YŞ was initially suspended within the scope of the administrative investigation launched into Kemal Kurkut’s murder, he was reinstated after three months. The indictment demanded police officer YŞ be sentenced to life imprisonment for the killing.
The first hearing of the case was held on 14 December 2017. YŞ appeared before the judge for the first time nine months after the murder. During the trial, the request for the arrest of YŞ has been constantly rejected.
