Mother of Gezi victim hospitalized during court proceedings

BALIKESİR – Doğan News Agency

DHA Photo

The mother of Abdullah Cömert, who was killed during the Gezi protests of 2013 after being hit on the head with a tear gas canister in the southern city of Antakya, had to be rushed to hospital during the trial of her late son on April 1.

Hatice Cömert was hospitalized after her blood pressure reached a critical level, while she was watching footage from the time of the incident at court in the Aegean province of Balıkesir.

Gunshots and people screaming “Abdullah” could be heard in the footage, which was being shown in court when Hatice Cömert’s condition worsened and she had to be taken out of the court room.

“My son did not do anything wrong. What did he do to you to make you kill him?” she said while leaving the court. 

Abdullah Cömert died on June 2, 2013, after being hit by a tear gas canister at the height of the anti-government protests. The officer allegedly responsible, identified only by the initials A.K., faces up to 25 years in jail for deliberate homicide.

A.K., who testified through a visual and audio system, said he had fired the tear gas canister upon his superior’s orders. 

“There was definitely no sight inside the armed vehicle in the darkness of the night. I absolutely did not aim and shoot,” A.K. said at court, after Cömert’s lawyer accused him of firing the tear gas canister directly at Cömert, thus causing his death.

The court had not yet reached a verdict when the Hürriyet Daily News went to print. If the court does not reach a decision by April 1, it will proceed with further hearings on April 2 and April 3.

On July 24, 2014, the trial into the murder of Cömert was relocated to the Aegean city of Balıkesir, some 1,300 kilometers from the site of his death, over “security concerns.”

Meanwhile, a Turkish prosecutor has dismissed a lawsuit from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s lawyers after they filed a complaint against Hatice Cömert over words she uttered while visiting a condolence tent on Feb. 21 for Özgecan Aslan, a university student who was brutally raped and killed by a minibus driver in southern Turkey.

“I hope Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will not be able to wear a shroud. I hope he will not have the privilege of wearing that shroud. I hope he will burn to death,” she had said.