SEVAG BALIKÇI TRIAL

The expert report that arrived in the Diyarbakır Second Air Force Command Court Martial on the death of Turkish-Armenian soldier Sevag Balıkçı found suspect Kıvanç Ağaoğlu responsible for wrongful conduct, plaintiff lawyer Cem Halavurt told bianet.

Ağaoğlu had shot Balıkçı dead on April 24, 2011 while they were both performing their mandatory military service.

The court martial in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır also accepted the Balıkçı family's demands for evidence material to be sent back to the Forensics Insitute during the eigth hearing of the trial on Friday, as well as their request for the court to listen to eyewitnesses.

"The report prepared by Capt. Murat Yazgan from the Land Forces is in our favor. The report indicates that Ağaoğlu should have never switched on his rifle's safety lock and stresses that he had acted wrongfully," lawyer Halavurt said.

The court decided to adjourn the next hearing for Nov. 5, 2012.

"We had requested the file to be sent back to the Forensics Insitute due to the confusion about [Sevag's] clothes. Our request was granted. Moreover, [the court] also accepted our demand to for them to hear eyewitness," he added.

Officials had examined Sevag's clothes during the hearing on July 2, but Sevag's father Garabet Balıkçı had claimed the clothes in question did not belong to his son.

"He was not in the habit of wearing an undershirt. We are in doubt as to whether the clothes really belong to him or not. If my son was taken to hospital after he was wounded, then [medical staff] would have torn his clothes apart during emergency treatment. None of the clothes have been torn, however," Garabet Balıkçı had said.

Lawyer Halavurt had then requested that the clothes be sent back to the Forensics Institute for re-examination along with all other evidence materials, and the chief judge had said they were going to issue a decision on the matter following the arrival of the expert report.

Suspect Ağaoğlu's lawyer also requested a ban on the publication of news about the case on the grounds that the issue had wrongly begun to acquire political dimensions, but the court rejected his demand during Friday's hearing.

"Ağaoğlu's relative Bülent Kaya had attempted to influence the witnesses. [Officials then] took his testimony as well. We had already filed a complaint after he gave his testimony... The judge responded that this issue would be settled in the next hearing due to the change in the composition of the court delegation," Halavurt also said. (EKN)