Court acquits suspects in Bulanık shooting incident

An Ankara court yesterday acquitted two suspects in a lawsuit regarding a shooting incident that ended in two deaths in Bulanık in the southeastern province of Muş on the grounds it was “legitimate self-defense.”
Suspects Turan Bilen and Metin Bilen were accused of having opened fire on a crowd during protests against the closure of the Democratic Society Party (DTP) in December 2009, killing two people. The prosecutor also requested the suspects’ release yesterday, claiming they had “exercised their legitimate right to self defense.” The court also ruled to return the licensed weapons used by the suspects in the incident back to Turan Bilen. 
The two brothers’ lawyers had earlier argued their clients were defending their shop, which the demonstrators had attempted to torch, while the victims had claimed that the assault on the shop began after the shooting.