Seven police officers stand trial at the Bakırköy (Istanbul) 9^th High Criminal Court because they allegedly shot Ferhat Gerçek on 7 September 2007 in Yenibosna when he was selling copies of the Yürüyüş magazine. Gerçek had been critically injured and is bound to a wheelchair since the attack. The case was continued on 25 June. The court board was changed for the second time; reasons for the change were not announced.

The hearing was attended by Gerçek and defendant police officer Kazım Akgün. Gerçek himself is tried under charges of "opposing the Law on Meetings and Demonstrations", "resistance to obstruct duty", insult of public officials" and "intentionally harming property".

The lawyers reiterated their requests to broaden the investigation and not to take statements upon directives. The court decided to acquire a report from the Bakırköy State Hospital in order to have the Forensic Medicine Institute prepare a report about Gerçek.

"Judges are not aware of the case"

Taylan Tanay criticized the second change of the court board, "The actual trial is left in abeyance. The judges involved are not aware of the case file. Thus, they are not able to evaluate our requests. The right to a fair trial is being usurped", Tanay said.

The case was postponed to 24 December since the new court board needs time to study the file.

Punishments

Gerçek was 17 years old at the time of the incident. The indictment calls for prison sentences of 10.5 years each for defendants police officers Cengiz Çalış, Yavuz Özer, Aydın Özdere, Hasan Bayraktar, Emre Taşkın, Can Koçbülbül and Muzaffer Ünal. In the same case, Gerçek is facing imprisonment of up to 15 years. (BT/EÖ/VK)