Father of the Victim Is Fugitive Murder Suspect

The second hearing of the trial concerned with the murder of homosexual Ahmet Yıldız took place at the Üsküdar (Istanbul) Bağlarbaşı Criminal Court of First Instance today.

The victim's father and defendant in the case Yahya Yılıdız could not be found yet, though an arrest warrant had been issued upon him. 2 eye-witnesses testified in today's hearing. Orhan Aymelek, alleged owner of the car that was used in the murder, did not attend the hearing because his address could not be found. Ümmühan Darman, who got injured on the day of the accident, did not attend the hearing either.

Even though it was a public hearing, members of non-governmental organizations following the case were not allowed into the court room. They made a press release in front of the courthouse after the hearing and demonstrated with banners saying, "We do not want to be killed because we are homosexual".

The case was postponed to 1 April 2010. The court decided unanimously to hear the statement of Ahmet Yıldız' partner İbrahim Can, despite the objection made by Public Prosecutor Zekeriya Şen.

Witenesses could not identify the murderer

Yıldız was murdered by one or more unidentified persons in Üsküdar on the Anatolian side of Istanbul on 15 July. Eye-witnesses Sefa Mühürcü and Fatih Nur Koval described the murder as follows:

"We were coming back from sports. It was around 11.00 p.m. When we passed Tuna Café, a car entered the street driving fast and parked next to another car. We thought they were friends. One person got off the car and had a look at the person in the other car. We started to walk. After 2 steps we heard gunfire. When we looked back we saw the person from before shooting into the car 4 or 5 times. He entered his car again and they drove away quickly. The person in the car desperately tried to make the car work and hit the shutters of a pharmacy. The last thing we remember is that he took a deep breath".

According to Koval's statement, the car was a Hyundai.

Lawyer Söyle: "As if the court does not want to find the suspect..."

Lawyer Fırat Söyle, representing absent Ümmühan Darman said to bianet: "It was an arbitrary decision of the judge and the prosecutor not to allow the spectators into the court room". Söyle had rejected the claim of the LambdaIstanbul LGBT Solidarity Association to be accepted as joint plaintiff in the first court hearing.

After listening to the eye-witnesses, judge Burhan Karaloğlu decreed, "to enforce the imposed arrest warrant upon defendant Yahya Yıldız and to write to the Bar Association in order to find a lawyer for him".

In his evaluation after the hearing Söyle told bianet, "The trial progresses in a significantly hopeless manner. According to the indictment, Yahya Yıldız is in Northern Iraq and the matter of his capture is moving very slowly".

"No action is being taken related to a necessary search of the defendant by the Ministry of the Interior and/or Interpol. Ahmet Yıldız has not got a lawyer. According to the law, the family has to make a referring demand. This is another negative aspect of the hearing. Because the defendant is his father", Söyle explained.

The second hearing was followed up by Amnesty International, LambdaIstanbul, Kaos GL (Kaos Gay and Lesbian Cultural Research and Solidarity Association), Direnistanbul, the We Are Not Male Initiative, the Istanbul LGBTT Civil Society Initiative and members of EHP (Labour Movement Party), LGBTT organizations and the Woman's Gate. (BÇ/VK)