Top court rules right to life violated for man killed by police

ANKARA

Turkey’s Constitutional Court has ruled the right to life was violated both in principle and in procedure in the murder of a protestor by a police officer during a demonstration in the Erciş district of the eastern Van province in 2008. 

The court made the ruling after the family of the victim, Mehmet Deniz, appealed a local court’s acquittal of the suspected murderer, who was identified as S.B. 

Deniz was killed when he was hit in the head by S.B. with batons and sticks during a Women’s Day march organized by the dissolved Democratic Society Party (DTP) in Erciş on March 5, 2008. 

Saying that Deniz’s right to life was breached both in principle and in procedure, the constitutional court ruled for S.B.’s acquittal to be reversed. 

Meanwhile, in another appeal the court also ruled that right to life was violated both in principle and in procedure in the death of 21-year-old Hasan Özer, who was found hanged in the Kandıra closed prison four days after telling his family he was concerned he might get killed. The court ruled for Özer’s case to be reopened by the chief prosecutor’s office in the northwestern province of Kocaeli.