19-year-old Yasin Kırbaş was shot by a police officer in June last year. The young man had been brought up in an orphanage and had later lived on the streets.

According to his own statement, he asked a plainclothes police officer in a park in Kadiköy, Istanbul, for a cigarette. He says that the officer, Bülent Okumuş, got angry and shot him in the neck.

The young man’s spinal cord was shattered and he was left paralysed.

Physiotherapy denied for months

In November 2008, the hospital in Kadiköy where he had been taken announced that the young man was in need of physiotherapy and that a lack of facilities at this hospital necessitated a transfer to a rehabilitation centre elsewhere in Istanbul.

In December 2008, the court which is trying the police officer for attempted killing rejected the demands of Kırbaş’s lawyer Naciye Demir. Because the young man stands accused of robbery, the arrest warrant against him was not lifted, and a hospital transfer was denied. The court also decided to try the police officer without detention.

Shocking delays

In January 2009, Okumuş was transferred to Tunceli to work there. Despite Kırbaş’s ongoing paralysis, his arrest warrant was still valid. It took until the end of the month for him to be permitted to transfer to a rehabilitation centre in Bahçelievler, Istanbul.

However, the rehabilitation centre had to reject him because of low bed capacity. As his family has no means of helping him, Kırbaş was accommodated at a hotel in central Istanbul for two days, supported by the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TIHV). The Taksim First Aid Hospital then accepted Kırbaş “on a temporary basis.”

Permanently paralysed

Finally, the young man has been accepted by a charitable hospital, Darülaceze, in Kayışdağı, Istanbul. Pembegül Şenyüz of Darülaceze has said that without physiotherapy, the young man’s condition will get worse, but that they have the appropriate experts on site.

bianet was further told that Kırbaş, who has been at the institution for a week, will never walk again. In addition, his hands will not function 100 percent. The next hearing of the court case is on 26 March. (EZÖ/TK/AG)