Trial of Gezi victim Ali İsmail Korkmaz moved from Eskişehir for 'security reasons'

ESKİŞEHİR - Doğan News Agency

Ali İsmail Korkmaz died on July 10 after being beaten with sticks by plainclothes men during the Gezi protests in Eskişehir. DHA photo

The trial into the killing of Ali İsmail Korkmaz, a 19-year-old protester who died after being beaten with sticks by plainclothes men during the Gezi protests in Eskişehir, has been relocated to the Central Anatolian town of Kayseri.

The local court dealing with the case stated that it had applied to the Justice Ministry to move the trial out of Eskişehir for "security reasons," after both the Governor's Office and the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office presented an opinion in favor of relocation.

The request was approved and the case was moved to Kayseri, a city located more than 500 kilometers from Eskişehir.

Eight men, including four police officers, are facing jail time over the murder of Korkmaz.

The young university student from the southern province of Hatay, who was studying in Eskişehir, died of a brain hemorrhage on July 10 after spending 38 days in a coma induced by the beating. The incident was caught by security cameras in the vicinity of a nearby hotel.

One police officer accused of participating in the beating, identified only as M.S., faces life imprisonment, according to the prosecutor's indictment.

Relatives object to relocation

Sources in the Eskişehir Courthouse told Doğan News Agency that the decision to relocate the case was "certain," though not yet officially confirmed.

However, the brother of the victim, Gürkan Korkmaz, said they had already received a document from the Eskişehir court stating that the trial would start on Nov. 20 in Eskişehir. "We have only just learned that it will actually happen in a remote town," he said, adding that the trial should be heard where the incident happened.

Controversy over the subject was stirred recently after Eskişehir Governor Alim Tuna threatened a reporter from daily Radikal for penning a story revealing that the Governor's Office wanted to move the hearings outside of the city.

"The court asks a question and we write our opinion in order to prevent incidents from happening in this city where hundreds of thousands of people live, for the well-being of public order," Tuna wrote in a private e-mail to reporter İsmail Saymaz.

"If you discuss this subject by interpreting it again, you're vile and inglorious," the governor had also added, in remarks that sparked huge controversy.