Diyarbakır bar suspects shooting footage of lawyer Elçi was ‘deleted’

DİYARBAKIR – Doğan News Agency

DHA photo

The Diyarbakır Bar Commission, which is in the process of investigating the brutal killing of human rights lawyer and bar association head Tahir Elçi, has claimed a crucial 17-second-long section of camera footage marking the moment Elçi was shot was not included in the police camera recordings.

In the two separate camera recordings recently revealed by the Police Intelligence and Photo Film Branch Directorate, the recording was “cut right at the moment when gunshots were fired” in the Sur district of southeastern Diyarbakır province where Elçi was killed, the commission claimed.

The owner of the footage, a police officer, said he cut the recording because he became anxious during the clashes, though Diyarbakır bar officials claimed this statement was suspicious.

Meanwhile, the investigation launched by the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office regarding Elçi’s murder is continuing. The bar urged that an independent referee should investigate the raw footage and underlined they have turned to prosecution, accordingly.

In the camera footage in question, a single gunshot is heard while Elçi speaks to an elderly man at the crime scene. Elçi looks toward Sur’s Balıkçılarbaşı Square as the sound of gunshots increases. The images are cut at the moment an elderly man leaves and Elçi looks at the scene of the clashes.

However, the moment when the fatal gunshot that killed Elçi was fired was not found in either recording, which were examined by experts. The commission claimed the crucial moment may have been deleted from the recordings.

Elçi was shot dead on Nov. 28 as he coincidentally delivered a press statement to condemn special forces teams for damaging the base of Diyarbakır’s famous Four-Legged Minaret.