Indictment accepted almost four years after death of young Gezi victim Elvan
ISTANBUL
The Istanbul 17th Court of Serious Crimes has accepted an indictment regarding the death of 14-year-old Berkin Elvan, who was killed with a tear gas canister during the Gezi protests in June 2013.The indictment was completed on Dec. 7 after nearly three years of investigation, with the prosecutor saying the police officer had displayed “probable intent” in killing the boy.
Elvan, then 14, became a symbol of the 2013 Gezi Park protests after he was shot by a tear gas canister fired by police in June 2013. He died in March 2014 after 269 days in a coma.
The prosecutor’s office had sought life sentence for the suspect police officer, identified only by the initials as F.D., who said he did not remember whether or not he fired a gas canister during the incident.
The 11-page indictment, which was prepared by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office’s Employee Crimes Investigation Bureau, was sent to the Istanbul 17th Court of Serious Crimes. Elvan’s parents were named as complainants, while F.D. is the only suspect in the indictment after proceeding were not pursued against 42 other suspect police officers.
F.D. said in his testimony that he was assigned to work in Istanbul’s Okmeydanı neighborhood on the day of the incident and had the weapon that fired gas canisters with him as part of his duty.
While claiming that they were intervening as police officers against protesters who were trying to block a road, F.D. said he did not remember what happened during the events in question.
Meanwhile, allegations that Elvan was carrying 11 explosives in his pocket were also included in the indictment.
The previous prosecutor of the investigation file, Mehmet Selim Kiraz, was killed in his office after being taken hostage by members of the outlawed far-left group the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C). Kiraz and his two captors were killed in a firefight with police. The file then was transferred to prosecutor İsa Dalgıç.
