Assassination of Musa Anter: Witness testifies for the first time in 28 years

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Fourteenth hearing of the case of Kurdish author Musa Anter's killing and the Gendarmerie Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism (JİTEM) organization has been held at Ankara 6th Heavy Penal Court.

The cases of the assassination in Diyarbakır in 1992 and the JİTEM, which is accused of thousands of forced disappearances in Kurdish-majority regions during the conflict in the 1990s, were combined in 2014.

Nuri Sınır, a witness, testified for the first time 28 years after the killing. He was brought to the court by the attorney of Orhan Miroğlu, a Kurdish politician and the nephew of Anter who was together with him and wounded in the attack.

Anter family's attorney Selim Okçuoğlu, defendant Savaş Gevrekçi, attorneys of defendants, and attorney Esra Kılıç from the Truth, Justice and Memory Center attended the hearing. 

Announcing an interim decision, the court ruled that judicial control measures against defendant Hamit Yıldırım shall continue and the next hearing shall take place on October 20.

"We were going to meet with Anter"

Sınır told the court that he was going to meet at dinner with Anter and Miroğlu on the day of the killing at the hotel they were staying in Diyarbakır.

"Then something came up and I called Miroğlu and told him that I wasn't going to come to the hotel where Anter was staying but I said I would definitely come after dinner.

"After the dinner, former Diyarbakır mayor Mehdi Zana told me that Musa Anter and Orhan Miroğlu were murdered and asked me to take him. I went to take him with my vehicle and we went to Diyarbakır State Hospital from there. The vicinity of the hospital was surrounded by special operations police officers, most of whose faces were masked.

"Entrance to the hospital was not permitted. We only saw the body of Musa Anter. And we learned that Miroğlu was brought to Diyarbakır University Faculty of Medicine. We went there as well and I saw that Orhan Miroğlu was severely wounded and waiting for surgery. He was conscious, he told me about the incident."

"Orhan Miroğlu told me at the hospital that they had come under fire by PKK [Kurdistan Workers' Party] confessors and JİTEM members. With his father's permission, we took Miroğlu from the hospital he was in and brought him to Diyarbakır State Hospital. After I dropped Zana at his home, a vehicle followed me while I was going to my house.

"Because I felt that I was in danger, I knocked on a random door in the Bağlar Neighborhood and spent the night there. I went to the hospital in the morning again. We again talked about the incident.

"He shot them in the back"

"Miroğlu said that someone who introduced himself as Hamit Yıldırım had come to Anter several times in the day. As Miroğlu had heard from Anter ... he asked from Anter's help to make peace between two families who had animosity between them.

"He told me that the person who introduced himself as Hamit Yıldırım had come to the hotel again at night, took them and left the hotel. Hamit Yıldırım takes the two to the vehicle, brings them to somewhere and drops them, saying, 'This is the house.' When they got off, he opened fire behind them.

"[Miroğlu] told me that he had first shot at Musa Anter and them himself. He told me that he had continued shooting after Anter fell to the ground. Miroğlu told me that Hamit Yıldırım had later become a PKK confessor and his code name was Dijwar."

After his statement, attorney Okçuoğlu asked him about JİTEM and other state-affiliated illegal groups activities in Diyarbakır. "I know that there was an organization mentioned as JİTEM at the inner fortress. No one brought there would be left alive," Sınır replied.

After the witness statement, Anter family's lawyer demanded Hamit Yıldırım and Savaş Gevrekçi's files be separated from the case. Gevrekçi's attorney Hikmet İşler requested the acquittal of his client.

The court rejected the request for the separation of the files.

(TP/VK)