Police Acquitted on Killing Father and Son

Eskisehir High Criminal Court acquits four police officers blamed for killing a father and his 12 year-old son in 2004, in eastern city of Mardin.

Security forces presented the deceased as "terrorists" but it human rights activists protested the event and independent investigation into the incident revealed that they were murdered without responding back.

The case then received vast international and public attention.

The police officers claimed that both Ahmet and Uğur Kaymaz responded with gunfire during an raid into their rural house in November 21, 2004.

The court complied with the public prosecutor's demand and decided that the police officers acted on "self-defense", killing the father and the son.

Kaymaz family lawyer Erdal Kuzu expressed his perplexion regarding the ruling and said they will appeal.

His associate Heval Yıldız noted that looking at the progression of the case "this ruling was evident but unwanted".

Tahir Elçi claimed that the forensic medicine reports provided concrete evidence against the testimonies of the police officers and blamed the court of "failing to provide justice".

Wife's testimony

Makbule Kaymaz, the 30-year-old wife of Ahmet Kaymaz, and the mother of Ugur, spoke to the Turkey's Human Rights Association (IHD) group, which visited the scene and prepared a report about it, about the incident:

"My husband Ahmet was a truck driver. He transported goods with the truck which did not belong to us. My son Ugur was born in 1992 and was an elementary school student. He used to sometimes accompany his father to work. The day after the incident, my husband was scheduled to go to Iskenderun to pick up his load. He was getting prepared for the journey.

On the day of the incident, at about 4:30 p.m., we had prepared the table for dinner. My husband took a blanket and other things he would need for the journey and carried them to the truck with my son Ugur. They both had slippers on. They were going to put those things in the truck and come back inside to have dinner. The truck was parked some 40-50 meters from the house near the highway.

We heard gunshots soon after they went outside. My three other children and my mother-in-law were also in the house with me. We got scared when we heard the gunshots and jumped into the backyard of our next door neighbor, who is also our relative. At that moment, I saw that my son Ugur was kneeling in front of the truck facing the ground (I recognized his white trousers). Gunshots continued. In a short while police officers came and searched our house. The prosecutor took and questioned us. Later, I found out that my husband and my son had been killed."

13 bullets

The IHD group's report also summarizes the autopsy report and emphasizes that the bullets were fired from a very short distance.

* In the autopsy report; it is stated that there were a total of 13 bullets in Ugur Kaymaz's body. Four of them were in his right and left hands, and nine on his back. It was determined that nine of the 13 bullets were fired from a very short distance (less than 50 centimeters). Ugur had gunpowder marks on his body. Ahmet Kaymaz had eight bullets in his body.

Two of them were in his thigh and left hand, four in his chest, and two on his back. All eight bullets in Ahmet Kaymaz's body were fired from a short distance and he also had gunpowder marks on his body.

* According to the autopsy findings; it was determined that the bullets were not fired from different directions. After the first bullets hit the victims' bodies, the rest of the bullets were fired from the same direction and landed into the bodies in the new position they took after each shot.(TK/EÜ)