Trial into death of Gezi protester has tense start in Turkey

The first hearing in the trial into the killing of Gezi protester Ali İsmail Korkmaz was held on Monday under tight security — and with tensions high, as some of the lawyers representing the Korkmaz family as well as journalists were not allowed in the courtroom at first in the Anatolian province of Kayseri.
Approximately 300 lawyers had requested to represent Korkmaz’s family in the case, and the gallery audience broke out into applause as the family members entered the courtroom carrying a photo of their deceased son.

The court had to take a short recess after a man, reportedly a gendarme, was said to have entered the courtroom armed. However, police officers on duty at the court searched the man and found no weapon. Tensions increased further after two armed police officers in plainclothes entered the courtroom after the recess. The judge asked the officers to present their ID cards and leave the room.

Controversially, the trial had been moved out of Eskişehir province, where the 19-year-old was living when he was beaten to death during a Gezi protest on June 2, 2013.

Police units set up security checkpoints at the entrances to the city, and buses bringing people into Kayseri to support the murdered protester’s family were stopped by police and searched one by one.

Last September, the Eskişehir Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office approved an indictment by prosecutors overseeing the Korkmaz case and submitted it to the Eskişehir 2nd High Criminal Court.

A total of eight suspects, five of whom have been imprisoned pending trial, face accusations of carrying out the deadly beating of Korkmaz, who succumbed to his injuries after weeks in a local hospital.

Korkmaz, a 19-year-old university student, suffered a brain hemorrhage after being beaten with baseball bats by men in street clothes as he fled police during a demonstration in Eskişehir in support of the Gezi Park protests.

He fought for his life for 38 days at a hospital before passing away. The attack on Korkmaz stoked the tensions that erupted late in May over a government plan to demolish İstanbul’s Gezi Park in Taksim Square and replace it with a replica of an Ottoman-era barracks.

Numerous deputies attended the court session, including main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputies İlhan Cihaner, Süheyl Batum, Hüseyin Aygün and Levent Tüzel as well as President of the Turkish Bar Association (TBB) Metin Feyzioğlu.

The hearing was held in the city’s old courthouse because the new facility lacks a hall big enough to accommodate the attendees, and the sound system had some glitches.

The plaintiff’s lawyers criticized the moving of the trial to Kayseri and the small size of the courtroom. Describing the indictment as incomplete, the lawyers said it should mention that the killing was relevant to the Gezi Park protests and that the police used tear gas. According to the lawyers, transferring the case to Kayseri ruled out a fair trial.

The lawyers said a statement by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan — “I gave the orders to the police, who made a legend” — should have been included in the indictment.

When, in comments to the defendants, Korkmaz’s mother said, “What did İsmail do to you? How can you look at your own mothers?” some members of the audience in the courtroom broke out in tears.

The court accepted requests from Mustafa Sarısülük, Zafer Cömert and Muharrem Ayvalıtaş, relatives of other young men who died in the Gezi protests, to be added to the case.

The defendants denied the accusations in the indictment.