Turkish court backs policemen's jailing for Gezi death

By Aylin Sirikli and Ferdi Turkten

ANKARA

Turkey’s Supreme Court on Thursday approved a local court's decision to jail two police officers for over 10 years for the death of a protester during the Gezi Park demonstrations of June 2013.

A court in the central Anatolian province of Kayseri handed down the prison sentences to officers Mevlut Saldogan and Yalcin Akbulut for killing Ali Ismail Korkmaz, a 19-year-old university student, in the central Turkish city of Eskisehir.

Korkmaz died in intensive care after being severely beaten during the protests.

The duo had appealed the initial decision but the 1st Penal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Appeals agreed with the Kayseri court and approved the jail term for both men.

Previously, the Supreme Court rejected the same appeal for procedural errors and the Kayseri 3rd High Criminal court resent the dossier after omitting the mistakes.

Saldogan was sentenced on charges of “willfully causing serious injury and death” while Akbulut was sentenced for “causing death”.

Two other suspects, policemen Huseyin Engin and Saban Gokpinar, were acquitted of the charges.

In summer 2013, relatively small demonstrations in Istanbul’s Gezi Park grew into a nationwide wave of protests against the government that eventually left eight demonstrators and a police officer dead.

The protests erupted after the government moved to replace part of a leafy park at the heart of Istanbul with a mall. A redevelopment plan for the construction of an Ottoman-era barracks in Gezi Park became the focus of demonstrations that saw protesters clash with police in more than a dozen cities, causing damage to public and private property, according to the Turkish Health Ministry.

The government later labeled the demonstrations an attempt to overthrow the state by members of Fetullah Gulen’s “parallel state” in the police and court system.

Turkey accuses the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) – led by U.S. based Fetullah Gulen – of a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.

On July 15, a coup attempt in Turkey blamed on FETO left 248 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.