Relatives of killed inmate to receive indemnity

ANKARA

Turkey’s top court ruled for a total of 190,000 Turkish Liras of compensation to be paid to the relatives of an inmate who was killed during a gendarmerie operation codenamed “Operation Return to Life” in Ankara’s Ulucanlar Prison in September 1999. 

The Constitutional Court has decided for compensation for nine relatives of Abuzer Çat, an inmate who was serving a sentence in Ulucanlar Prison when he was killed along with nine other convicts during an operation conducted by the gendarmerie, on grounds the applicant’s “right to life was procedurally violated” due to a trial which had been ongoing for 15 years and eight months without a conclusion, daily Cumhuriyet reported on Aug. 8. 

Gendarmerie forces killed 10 convicts and injured more than 100 others in an operation codenamed “Operation Return to Life” on Sept. 26, 1999, after inmates staged a resistance. 

A case opened into 161 gendarmerie officials involved in the operation has not yet been concluded. Prior attempts to fine the state for compensation were also turned down. 

Nine of Çat’s relatives applied to the Constitutional Court on grounds they were not able to get a result in the criminal and compensation trials. 

The top court anonymously ruled the right to life, which is guaranteed under Article 17 of the constitution, had been breached in a procedural way. The court found the application of violation of right to a fair trial also admissible. 

The court, on the other hand, found the application for violation of right to life from a principal perspective inadmissible on grounds internal authorities were not exhausted as the criminal case was continuing. This part of the application will be decided on when the criminal court reaches a verdict.