Prosecutor appeals court verdict, demanding policeman be sentenced life in prison in Korkmaz case

KAYSERİ – Doğan News Agency

Emel Korkmaz (C), the mother of Ali İsmail Korkmaz, speaks as she leaves the courthouse in Kayseri after the verdict on Jan. 21, 2015. AFP Photo

The public prosecutor in charge of the case into the death of 19-year-old Gezi protester Ali İsmail Korkmaz has appealed last week's court verdict sentencing a police officer to 10 years in prison.

Public Prosecutor Mehmet Kalkan delivered a petition to the Supreme Court of Appeals on Jan. 26, demanding that policeman Mevlüt Saldoğan be sentenced to life in prison for premeditated murder.

Reports speculating that Kalkan appealed to the court last week were denied by the Kayseri Public Prosecutor’s Office on Jan. 23, as the prosecutor had been away from office following the verdict announced by a Kayseri court.

Meanwhile, Saldoğan and Yalçın Akbulut, a fellow police officer convicted in the case, have also appealed the court verdict.

The Kayseri 3rd High Criminal Court on Jan. 21 sentenced Saldoğan to 10 years and 10 months in prison on charges of injuring and causing the death of Korkmaz, though he could be granted probation as early as March 2019 on the basis that he has already been under arrest for 18 months. Akbulut was also sentenced to 10 years in prison, with a two year reduction in his sentence for good behavior, and he could also be released in six years and two months.

Korkmaz was beaten to death by a group of officers and civilians in the Central Anatolian province of Eskişehir during the 2013 Gezi protests.