FERHAT GERÇEK TRIAL

Ferhat Gerçek was shot by the police five years ago and has been bound to a wheelchair ever since. In the related trial, the Bakırköy (Istanbul) 9^th High Criminal Court appointed the police to investigate the related video footage and to give an expert opinion on the matter.

Chief of Police Necati Erdem investigated the footage of the shooting taken by a camera at the scene of incident and prepared a report accordingly. Lawyer Oya Aslan claimed that the people pointed to in the report were "identified wrongly". She announced to "file a criminal complaint about the police officer who prepared the incorrect report" and to request a neutral expert.

Police officers facing 10.5 years, Ferhat 15 years in jail

On 7 October 2007, distributors of the Yürüyüş magazine were beaten by the police in Yenibosna (Istanbul). Ferhat was shot at this back when he was trying to escape the scene.

The Bakırköy court opened a trial against police officers Cengiz Çalış, Yavuz Özer, Aydın Özdere, Hasan Bayraktar, Emre Taşkın, Can Koçbülbül and Muzaffer Ünal. The police officers are facing imprisonment of up 10.5 years on charges of "misconduct of office".

Gerçek and another twelve people on the other hand are facing prison sentences of up to 15 years each under allegations of "opposing the law on meetings and demonstrations", "resistance to obstruct duty", "insult of a public official" and "intentionally harming property".

The court had applied to the police to appoint an "expert" for the investigation of the footage.

Lawyer Aslan declared that the analysis of the "expert report" dated 25 October 2011was incorrect. She stated that the person identified as Mustafa Kaya was a different person as she was apparently able to proof with photographs.

"Kaya was not even present at the scene of incident", Aslan argued. The report was presented to court at the 3 February hearing. Aslan said that she was going to lodge a complaint about Chief of Police Erdem on the grounds of the "wrong identification".

In addition, the lawyer is going to request the CD be investigated by a neutral expert and not to consider the first report.

Crucial evidence lost

The bullet and Gerçek's t-shirt were sent to the Forensic Medicine Institute in order to determine the weapon the bullet was shot from and to be able to proof that Gerçek was shot from a short distance. Gerçek remained disabled after the incident. However, both the bullet and the t-shirt got lost at the Forensic Medicine Institute and were not included in the case file. It was not possible to identify the weapon the bullet was shot from after both pieces of evidence were lost. Neither the distance could be clarified.

Police claim compensation

Moreover, an additional trial was opened against Gerçek regarding a compensation claim for the "cost of repair" of the police cars that were damaged on the day of the incident.

The General Police Directorate affiliated with the Ministry of the Interior claimed TL 2,242 (€ 900) in compensation from Gerçek and four other people to cover the cost of damage that occurred at two police cars when they allegedly threw stones at the cars. It was requested to add the legal interest as accumulated since 7 October 2007 as well. (AS/VK)