Footage displayed during murder case of Gezi victim Ali İsmail Korkmaz

KAYSERİ

Ali İsmail Korkmaz's mother, Emel Korkmaz, and Berkin Elvan's mother, Gülsüm Elvan, attended the court together during a new hearing on the Gezi victim's murder case in Diyarbakır, Oct. 9. DHA Photo

Clear footage of university student Ali İsmail Korkmaz’s alleged beating and murder by shop owners and police during the Gezi Park protests last year is being watched during the fourth hearing into his murder.

At the hearing, the court rejected the prosecutor’s arrest demand for one of the suspected police officers, identified only as Y.A., and again delayed the trail until Nov. 26.

Korkmaz, 19, was beaten with sticks by plainclothes men during the Gezi protests in Eskişehir on June 2, 2013. He died on July 10 after spending 38 days in a coma.

The footage of security cameras, which were deleted for four times but later recovered and cleaned to get better images of the people’s faces, were displayed during the fourth trial in the murder case of Korkmaz held in Kayseri yesterday. The victim’s parents left the courthouse during the display of the footage, saying they could not bear to watch it.

The suspects identified themselves in the screenshots from the film showing the night of the incident, but denied all charges. The arrested suspects, identified only by their initials M.S., M.V., R.K., İ.K., E.H., appeared at the court, along with the other police officers who were released pending trial, identified only as H.E., Ş.G. and Y.A.

The victim’s mother, Emel Korkmaz, demanded that justice be served.

“I have never even slapped my son, who I raised for 19 years.  You have seen these murderers beating my son. I want a just trial to make them receive the punishment they deserve,” she said.

The police tightened security measures in front of the courthouse before the trial. Five people were detained after a scuffle outside the courthouse, all of whom were later released.

The court also rejected the suspects’ demand to reevaluate the results of the autopsy reports.

An autopsy report prepared by the medical department of Eskişehir’s Osmangazi University confirmed that Korkmaz died of a brain hemorrhage. “Korkmaz would not have died if he had not suffered a head trauma,” it stated.

Another autopsy report, presented by the Istanbul Forensic Medicine Institution, underlined that the injuries sustained on Korkmaz’s face and head were serious enough to risk his life, while the injuries on his back and right shoulder had only secondary effects on his vital functions. The report also stated that the medications Korkmaz had been taking to treat a cardiovascular disease had effect of worsening the brain hemorrhage and increasing his risk of death.