Soldier faces 18 years for fatal shooting of protester in southeast Turkey

DİYARBAKIR – Doğan News Agency

DHA photo

A Turkish prosecutor has demanded 18 years in prison for a private over the fatal shooting of 19-year-old Medeni Yıldırım during a protest against the building of a new police post in Diyarbakır’s Lice district in June 2013.

Pvt. Adem Çiftçi faces up to 18 years in prison for “possible premeditated murder under unjust provocation,” according to the indictment prepared by the prosecutor. 

The indictment said the demonstrators were chanting the slogan “We want peace, not war” during a demonstration to protest the construction of a police station in Lice on June 28, 2013, when Yıldırım was gunned down. 

The prosecutor said Yıldırım was watching a group of protesters who threw stones at the soldiers but did not join them, according to the camera footage. The commander of the station told the group that they could read their statement and then disperse, but some of these protesters threw Molotov cocktails at the patrol.

After a while, shooting noises came from the patrol station and Yıldırım is seen holding his arm and falling to the ground at that moment, said the indictment.

Yıldırım is commemorated together with the likes of Ali İsmail Korkmaz and Berkin Elvan as one of the murdered protesters of the 2013 Gezi movement.