18 YEARS OF IMPUNITY

This year's 24 January marked the 18^th anniversary of the violent death of renowned Turkish journalist Uğur Mumcu. On the same day, his family filed a criminal complaint about "the officials who neglected the investigation and the prosecution of the real perpetrators and instigators" related to the journalist murder.

The Mumcu family is part of the Social Memory Platform which was joined by several families of victims of political murders. The platform struggles for recognizing these murders as crimes against humanity. They also advocate for lifting the statute of limitation for the related cases.

One detainee

Mumcu was killed on 24 January 1993 by the explosion of a bomb that had been placed at his car in front of his home.

The regarding file was returned by the Court of Appeals twice. Prosecutor Salim Demirci from the Ankara 11^th High Criminal Court was vehemently against giving the defendants the opportunity to benefit from the "Law of Reintegration" on the grounds of a lack of "positive information on the situation and the activities of the organization". Yet, only defendant Ferhan Özmen is currently serving an aggravated life sentence.

The names of the defendants are Ekrem Baytap, Mehmet Ali Tekin, Hasan Kılıç, Abdulhamit Çelik, Fatih Aydın, Yusuf Karakuş and Mehmet Aydın. A new case was opened in 2010 against four people who are alleged members of the "Tawhid-Salaam Jerusalem Organization" that was found responsible for the murder.

Mumcu was writing for the nation-wide Cumhuriyet newspaper from 1975 to 1991. He published more than 20 books. Between 1991 and 1992, he wrote for the Milliyet daily. He returned to Cumhuriyet newspaper after the administration had changed. Mumcu also worked for the periodical Yeni Ortam and the ANKA News Agency.

Uğur Mumcu Commemorated in Ankara and Istanbul

Friends and family members of the slain journalist commemorated his death in Ankara in front of his home where he was killed and at his grave. The ceremony in front of Mumcu's home was attended by Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, Chairman of the Republican People's Party (CHP), the former CHP Chairman Deniz Baykal and Hosrof Dink, brother of slain Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.  In Istanbul, people gathered at the Mumcu monument.

Özge Mumcu, the daughter of Uğur Mumcu, told the journalists, "The forces behind the triggermen have not been revealed at all. I said this many times and also my family called for arresting the ones behind the murder immediately". She demanded steps to be taken by all the people responsible to find the real perpetrators of the murder. (EÖ/BB/VK)