The 11th hearing of the case filed regarding the death of Amed Bar Association Chair Tahir Elçi, who was murdered in front of the historical Four-Legged Minaret in Amed's Sur district on November 28, 2015, was held at Diyarbakır 10th High Criminal Court. After the defenses, the court announced its decision. The court acquitted police officers Sinan Tabur, Fuat Tan and Mesut Sevgi.

 

TAHİR ELÇİ CASE

 

Former Amed Bar Association Chair Tahir Elçi was murdered while making a statement in front of the Four-Legged Minaret in Sur district on November 28, 2015. The investigation carried out by the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor's Office was completed on March 20, 2020, 4.5 years after the murder. A lawsuit was filed against the police officers Sinan Tabur, Fuat Tan and Mesut Sevgi, who were at the scene of the murder and continued their duties, on the charge of "causing death by conscious negligence". In the same file, the fugitive defendant Uğur Yakışır was also accused of "destroying the unity and integrity of the state by killing 2 police officers." The allegation of "disrupting" was made.

 

The crime scene investigation took place 5 months later. Since no bullet was found, it was not clear which gun the bullet came from. However, the camera footage on the street recorded the moments when Elçi was shot, second by second.

 

EVENT WAS WANTED TO BE TURNED TO PKK

 

There have been many developments in the case, the last hearing of which was held on March 6. Witnesses who stated during the investigation that "the murder of Tahir Elçi was planned by the PKK and that the shot that caused his death was made by Mahsum Gürkan or Uğur Yakışır" rejected their statements in court. Witness Recep Özbek said: "I was in prison on the date of the murder, I got angry with Mahsum Gürkan because of some of his actions, and I testified that he killed him."

 

Witness Deniz Ataş, heard from Bolu High Criminal Court via SEGBİS, said: "The prosecutor and the police said, 'Give me a statement that Elçi was killed, and we will release you. Otherwise, we will execute you.' I was scared too. I believed. They said to me, 'You will sign'. So I signed the statement without reading it. I don't know who Tahir Elçi is or where he is. I did not make a video of the incident in which Tahir Elçi was shot. I want to come to court and explain everything."

 

However, the lawyers' requests for both witnesses were ignored by the court.

 

In the letter he sent to the Amed Bar Association on August 17, 2021, witness Deniz Ataş explained that he was subjected to severe torture and ill-treatment on March 3, 2016, when he was taken into custody. Ataş said that Kenan Karaca, the prosecutor working at the Diyarbakır Courthouse, came to his place and was forced to testify in order to attribute the "Tahir Elçi murder" to Mahsun Gürkan and Uğur Yakışır. Ataş reported that the same prosecutor said: "Don't be afraid, I will have you released based on my honor and dignity. Help us blame these events on the PKK. If a lawyer comes, do not mention these conversations otherwise you will never be saved."

 

DAVUTOĞLU DETAIL

 

Future Party Chair Ahmet Davutoğlu, who was the prime minister on the date of Tahir Elçi's murder, made a statement during his visit to Amed on September 12, 2021: "Tahir Elçi was the victim of a political assassination." Lawyers demanded that Davutoğlu be heard many times throughout the case process. The court decided to hear Davutoğlu on June 15, 2022. However, the decision was abandoned after a short time.

 

One of the most discussed pieces of evidence during the trial was the camera footage from a private workplace that witnessed the crime scene and was claimed to be "broken". It turned out that the hard disk, which constitutes one of the most important evidence in the file and recorded the security camera images that the court sent to Scientific and technological research council of  Turkey (TÜBİTAK) for examination due to its corruption, was empty.

 

Lawyers stopped over the suspicion that the images in question had been lost. No research has been done on this.

 

The records of the camera of PTT Balıkçılarbaşı Branch, which was in a position to see the scene of the incident, regarding the day of the incident could not be accessed. It was revealed that 12 seconds of the footage taken by the Photo Film Branch personnel, the only camera recording that captured the moment of the shooting, which could shed light on the murder, had been deleted.

 

CAMERA RECORDINGS REVIEW

 

Amed Bar Association sent the security camera recordings to the Forensic Architecture organization in London. Forensic Architecture, which prepared a detailed technical report on the murder of Elçi; It benefited from visual, audio and documentary sources. The report found that three of the police officers were under strong criminal suspicion.

 

It was noted that three police officers were in the direct line of fire towards Elçi and fired their weapons multiple times. It was stated that one of the police officers was the only officer who fired his gun with a clear and unobstructed line of fire towards Elçi.

 

REQUEST FOR ACQUITTAL FROM THE PROSECUTOR

 

In his opinion dated April 25, the prosecutor requested that Tahir Elçi be acquitted separately for the accused police officers who lost his life with a bullet whose origin could not be determined. The prosecutor repeated his opinion at the hearing held today.