In search of justice: 37th hearing of 2008 homophobic murder case held today

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The 37th hearing of the homophobic hate murder case on the death of Ahmet Yıldız in 2008 was held today (February 28) at the İstanbul Anadolu 5th Heavy Penal Court.

In the previous hearing, the court had for the first time accepted the LGBTI+ groups' requests for hearing witnesses.

However, the request by the lawyers for the court to hear the mother and the sister was refused in today's hearing.

Yahya Yıldız, the father, is being charged with deliberate murder of a descendant in the first degree, violating the firearms law, and willful injury but he is fugitive ever since.

In the hearing today, where plain-clothes and uniformed police officers were also present in the courtroom, the decision was that the warrant for arrest of suspect Yahya Yıldız should continue, and a stay of execution for the warrant.

The next hearing of the case will be on July 4, 2023.

The lawyers and activists did not talk to the press when the police went after them after the hearing outside the courthouse

The police went after the lawyers, journalists and activists after the hearing and asked them not to talk to the press.

What happened?

Twenty-six-year-old university student Ahmet Yıldız had started receiving death threats after disclosing to his family that he was homosexual and he had filed a criminal complaint against his family about three months before he was killed.

He was shot dead on July 15, 2008, by his father Yahya Yıldız. Another person was injured.

Yıldız, who was killed by five shots, was a final year undergraduate student in the Physics Department of Marmara University.

When his body was not collected by his family, and he was buried in a cemetery of the nameless.

The case started on September 8, 2009, after a complaint by the person injured but it was not concluded despite the 37 hearings held.

A red notice was issued for the runaway suspect Yahya Yıldız but he has not been caught up to date. (TY/NK/AÖ/PE)