Turkey Convicted For Death Under Detention

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) delivered a verdict yesterday on the case of Metin Yurtsever family regarding the death of Metin Yurtsever under police detention. 

The court found Turkey guilty of violating Article 2 (right to life + investigation). 

A total of EUR 65,000 in respect of non-pecuniary damage (distributed as follows: EUR 21,000 to İsabet Yurtsever, EUR 16,000 each to Duygu Yurtsever and Diba Yurtsever, EUR 2,000 each to Gülnur Yurtsever, Kadriye Yurtsever, Selamet Yurtsever, Şadiye Yurtsever and Semra Yurtsever, and EUR 2,000 jointly to Emine Yurtsever, Tarkan Yurtsever, Özden Yurtsever, Türkan Sümerkan and Aylin Yurtsever), and EUR 5,937 to the applicants jointly in respect of costs and expenses.

Forensics: Torture

On 19 November 1998 Metin Yurtsever was detained by police officers from the counter-terrorism department while he was in the offices of the provincial branch of HADEP (People’s Democracy Party, a pro-Kurdish left-wing party) in Kocaeli in western Turkey.  The following day, complaining of pain, he asked to be taken to hospital. 

Yurtsever died on 23 November 1998. 

A medical report found that his death had been the result of a complication of his cardiovascular disorder following a general trauma to the body and the thorax, and that there was a causal link between his arrest and his death.

The forensics report said that Yurtsever died as a result of torture breaking his ribs and causing wounds throughout his body.

16 policemen prosecuted 

The Kocaeli public prosecutor’s office started an investigation in December 1998, on conclusion of which criminal proceedings were brought against sixteen police officers involved in the incident. 

Police officers Şinasi Yılgın, Başkomiser Şıh Ömer Ediz, Şaban Kurnaz, Süleyman Başkal, İsmail Türkdemir, Sadettin Topal, Bülent Oral Tunar, Bekir Şahin, Temel Çakmak, Kadir Cenk, Onur Düzcan, Cemil Çetin, Nihal Yücesoy, Mehmet Gürcan, Mustafa Atik and Recai Ergün were charged with “murder on duty in an excessive and obscured way”, facing 8 years of prison. 

“Yurtsever was beaten severely under detention,” said Ramazan Bilginer Metin, former chairman of the provincial branch of HADEP in Kocaeli. 

“He was put in a cell along with Eyüp Kılıçdoğan, another HADEP member. After Yurtsever’s situation got worse, we notified the officials. Police officers entered the cell and started kicking him. They refused to transfer him to a hospital,” he said. 

Supreme Court of Appeals overturned, court resisted 

On 23 July 2007, the court acquitted Yılgın and 10 other policemen. Police officers Ediz, Kurnaz, Türkdemir, Topal, Tunar, Şahin and Çakmak were ordered to prison sentences of 5 and 6 years each. 

Supreme Court of Appeals 1^st Penal Chamber overturned the ruling, saying that “no solid evidence proved that the blows on the deceased were inflicted by the defendants”.  

Policemen acquitted 

Kocaeli 2^nd High Criminal Court resisted on its ruling. On 22 November 2011, Supreme Court of Appeals General Council overturned the ruling again, acquitting all defendants.

Kocaeli 2^nd High Criminal Court, later on, agreed with Supreme Court of Appeals, acquitting all policemen.(AS/BM)

* Click here to read the article in Turkish.