ANKARA - Dicle Anter, son of Kurdish scholar journalist Musa Anter, described the droping of Anter's murder case due to prescription as "We had a period when justice and law were disregarded".

 

Kurdish scholar and journalist Musa Anter was murdered on September 20, 1992 in Diyarbakır, where he went to attend the Culture and Art Festival. The perpetrators of Apê Musa, who were murdered by JİTEM, were acquitted despite a 30-year legal struggle. The case, which was opened after the confessions made by many JİTEM members, was dropped by the Ankara 6th High Criminal Court, was stated that 30 years had passed since the murder and so the case was droped due to prescription.

 

30 YEARS OF STRUGGLE WAS CLOSED WITH 5 MINUTES BREAK AND 10 MINUTES INTERIM DECISION

 

The 30-year legal struggle of the Anter family and their lawyer Selim Okçuoğlu was closed with a 5-minute break and a 10-minute interim decision, without a single defendant and material facts being revealed. At the hearing, the lawyers and Dicle Anter insisted that JİTEM was a counter-organisation within the state, that the crimes it committed were against the representatives of the Kurdish people with political motives, and that in this context, it was stated in the 77th and 78th articles of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) that "JITEM is a counter-organisation". Although it requested that the prescription not be applied as a "crime against humanity", the court ignored it.

 

Dicle Anter, one of the lawyers of the case and İHD Co-Chair Öztürk Türkdoğan and journalist-writer Hüseyin Aykol evaluated the decision in the Anter case.

 

'JUSTICE AND LAW WERE DISREGARDED'

 

Stating that Apê Musa was murdered with a political murder, Dicle Anter, son of the murdered Anter said: "The decision made by the court committee was also political. There is no independent judiciary in Turkey and that it is tied to politics. Actually, while there is so much evidence and data, while the perpetrators are known, these perpetrators were not caught. It was reflected to us at the hearing that everything was prepared and planned. In fact, the Anter murder would serve as a mirror that would reveal the murders with certain perpetrators in the past, as well as the murders with certain perpetrators that may happen in the future. We had a period when justice and law were disregarded. We will continue our struggle for justice against the decision in my father's case."

 

TÜRKDOĞAN: THE CASE IS NOT INDEPENDENT OF THE POLICIES OF THE GOVERNMENT

 

Stating that closing a period in this way is unacceptable, İHD Co-Chair Öztürk Türkdoğan said: "This practice is also not independent of the policy of impunity. Such cases are either protracted and dropped due to prescription or people are released with partial amnesties. Turkey also applied the tactic of 'dropping due to prescription' in these files. Lawsuits continue for so long that perpetrators are expected to die naturally. Or some perpetrators are killed and committed suicide. This is how it ends for a while. In the limited number of cases that can be opened regarding the murders committed in the 1990s, disappearances in custody, the evacuation of villages, and tens of thousands of massacred people, the perpetrators are either acquitted or, as seen in the Anter case, they are released due to prescription. It is not possible to deal with this independently of the policy followed by the political government. This process continues for us. We will continue our struggle for truth and justice by using the means of appeal to the end.”

 

AYKOL: FREE PRESS APÊ WILL BE GROWN BY MUSA'S PATH

 

Stating that Anter's murder was a “crime against humanity” and that this context should have dealt with, Journalist-writer Hüseyin Aykol said: "It was obvious that the court committee would make this decision in the previous session but they couldn't make a decision on September 15 because there were only 5 days left before prescription. The court date was insistently given one day after dropping due to the prescription. However, the court board read the previous decision. They want to make people forget the killing of Apê Musa with the prescription. They don't want to punish their killers. We have been commemorating Apê Musa for 30 years, developing the free press institutions he left. That's why they punish us by acquitting murderers. The Free Press will grow in the path of Apê Musa.”