The Office of the Bakırköy Prosecutor has turned the case for the death of Engin Ceber into a secret investigation.

Barkın Timtik, a lawyer for the People’s Law Office, with whom bianet met about the case, said that this decision would prevent them from uncovering what was done during the investigation and that they had serious doubts about the legal procedures that will ensue.

Ceber was taken into custody with three of friends at Istinye Station on September 28. He was later arrested for “resisting police,” put into Metris Prison and died in the Şişli Etfal Hopital he was taken to after he went to coma on October 10.

His friends Cihan Gün and Özgür Karakaya, with whom he was taken into custody, told Bakırköy prosecutor Cevdet Doğan in detail that they were tortured both in the police centers and Metris Prison.

Complaint regarding Ceber’s death

Today, seven people from the administrative board of the Association of Solidarity With the Families of Prisoners (TAYAD) filed a complaint with the Sultanahmet Hall of Justice against Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Şahin, Metris Prison’s First and Second Directors, the guardians on duty, the gendarmerie soldiers responsible for external security and their superiors, the officials of the Istinye Police station and their superiors, the prosecutor and judge who ruled for the arrest for their responsibility in Ceber’s death.

Lawyer Timtik hopes that this complaint will be combined with the investigation file in the Office of the Bakırköy Prosecutor. 

Ceber’s death is in the agenda of the Parliament 

Mehmet Sevigen, deputy for the People’s Republican Party (CHP), submitted a motion of question to be answered by Interior Minister Beşir Atalay. Sevigen asked the following questions:

-  How dependable this investigation will be, since the prosecutor who is supposed to conduct the investigation is also the supervisor of those guardians and the prison director who will be investigated for their involement in the incident?

- Are you planning to assign a new prosecutor for the investigation?

- Do you think the testimonies can be dependable without removing those guardians who were on duty at the time of the incident?

- We are hearing from their lawyers and the media that the lives of  Özgür Karakaya, Cihan Gün and Aysun Baykal, who were taken into custody with Engin Ceber, are in danger. Are you going to take necessary measures?

Ceber was interred yesterday (October 12). Ferhat Gerçek, who was shot by the police while distributing a publication and was paralyzed because of it, was at the funeral, too. Ceber and his friends were taken into custody for protesting what had happened to Gerçek. In the funeral, Gerçek said, “I want those responsible of killing brother Engin punished.” (TK/TB)