ISIS terror suspects in Turkey won’t be tried for crime against humanity

The 13th hearing of the trial for the ISIS massacre at an HDP election rally on 5 June 2015 in Amed took place on Wednesday.

The hearing, at Ankara Sincan 2nd Heavy Penal Court, saw the defendants Orhan Gonder in Court, while the other defendants Mustafa Kılınç and İsmail Korkmaz were attending via video conference system (SEGBİS), like a fourth defendant Burhan Gök, who is free pending trial.

Lisa Çalan, who lost her two legs in the attack, at the Ankara Massacre on 10 October, attended the hearing together with representative of Diyarbakir Bar, HDP deputies Kemal Peköz and Selçuk Mızraklı.

A victim’s lawyer, Özgür Erol argued that some of the answers requested to the court were not satisfactory.

Erol said they wanted the defendants tried for “constitutional violation, deliberate killing and explosives” to be tried within the scope of “crime against humanity”.

Erol added: “The perpetrators are militants of ISIS, and they are known to have carried out massive attacks for religious and political motives. All the defendants, especially Orhan Gonder, have organised attacks in a very detailed and planned way. The attack on the HDP rally in Diyarbakir is the continuation of the ISIS attacks which started in Kobanê and who were defeated there. This action was carried out for religious and political motives. The target of this attack on the HDP rally was Kurdishness and Kurds’ political ideas”.

Lawyer Erol stated that there were enough evidences and motives for the defendants to be tried for “crimes against humanity. Suruç, Ankara, all massacres bear the same hallmarks. The relationships between the defendants in relation to all three massacres are clear. Civilians were targeted in each one of these attacks which were not only aimed at civilians, dissidents or an ethnic identity, but also humanity”.

The prosecution stated his rejection to this request by the victims’ lawyer and asked for a continuation of the detention.

The jailed defendants demanded to be released, while defendant Burhan Gök, free pending trial, requested the removal of the judicial control order on him.

The court decided to rule against the release of the jailed defendants and against the requests by Burhan Gök, but also ruled to reject the request for the defendants to be tried for “crimes against humanity”.

Source: ANF English