The trial process regarding the number of Nihat Kazanhan, 12, who was shot in the head by speacial operations police officer Nurbaki Göçmez on 14 January 2015 in Cizîr (Cizre) district of Şirnex (Şırnak) province, continues. In 2016, Cizre 1st High Criminal Court sentenced the accused police officer to life imprisonment. The court then reduced the sentence to 13 years and 4 months with "unjust provocation" and "good behaviour" discounts. The verdict was upheld by the Court of Appeal and the Court of Cassation. 

 

The case was appealed to the Constitutional Court (AYM) on 26 September 2019. The Constitutional Court ruled that Kazanhan's "right to life was violated" and ordered the family to pay 90 thousand TL compensation. The Constitutional Court also ruled that "unjust provocation discount" would not be applied to the sentence given to the police officer who murdered Kazanhan. The Constitutional Court sent the file to the Cizre 1st Assize Court to eliminate the consequences of the violation.

 

NOT ARRESTED

 

On 24 February 2023, Cizre Heavy Penal Court No 1 started to hear the case again and the court issued an arrest warrant for the defendant police officer Göçmez. The court also issued a red notice on 17 January 2024 in case the defendant illegalyy travels abroad. While the 11 year long trial has still not yielded any results, 11 hearings were held after the Constitutional Court's reversal decision. The Ministry of Interior, on the other hand, does not demand the issuance of a red bulletin for the defendant and notification to Interpol and the arrest and extradition of the defendant in the country where he is located.

 

FOUND IN HTS RECORDS

 

The Ministry's failure to implement the decision is justified by the allegations of "missing documents" and "incomplete filling of forms". The HTS (Historical Traffic Search) records of the defendant police officer, who was technically monitored by the court committee within the scope of the investigation and whose HTS records were examined on 1 February 2024, were determined to be in Izmir before and after the arrest warrant issued for him. While the HTS records in the file are given with the dates, it was determined that the signal of the defendant police officer was in Torbalı district of Izmir from 1 March 2024 to 16 January 2024. It was also included in the file that the defendant made some meetings in Istanbul afterwards. However, despite these records, the defendant police officer has still not been caught.

 

11 YEARS OF IMPUNITY

 

The HTS records, which were requested by the lawyers in the last hearing and accepted by the court, were just shared with the lawyer of the case, Rojhat Dilsiz. Stating that the defendant has still not been caught despite the issuance of an arrest warrant in the case, Dilsiz said, "The investigation process was disrupted, a healthy trial was not conducted and ultimately a low sentence was given. In the case we sent to the Constitutional Court, a precedent-setting decision was made and the file was sent to the local court. In the ongoing case file, an arrest warrant has been issued for the defendant police officer and the execution of this warrant is pending."

 

DEFENDANT IS STILL IN TURKEY

 

Emphasising that the defendant is still in Turkey according to the HTS records but has not been caught despite this, Dilsiz said, "The red notice decision is a situation that the courts are not used to and unfortunately, although a long time has passed after the court decision, this decision has still not been issued due to missing documents. The HTS records of the defendant, for whom there is an arrest warrant, revealed that the defendant is still in Turkey and has been in various places. Although some of our applications to the court for the execution of the aforementioned arrest warrant have been accepted, unfortunately, this warrant has not been executed until today."

 

Dilsiz stated that they will continue the legal struggle for the perpetrator to receive the necessary punishment and said, "We insistently state that the impunity policy applied in all similar cases encourages the perpetrators and that this practice has led to the formation of a culture of impunity in this country, and we express our determination to continue our legal struggle until the perpetrator or perpetrators receive the punishment they deserve."

 

MA / Zeynep Durgut