Turkish court approves verdicts against policemen for killing of Gezi protester Ali Ismail Korkmaz

ANKARA

The Turkish Supreme Court of Appeals has approved a verdict against two police officers who were found guilty of killing 19-year-old Gezi protester Ali İsmail Korkmaz. 

Officers Mevlüt Saldoğan and Yalçın Akbulut, who were both convicted to 10 years and 10 months in jail, will serve prison terms that were handed down by a Kayseri court after the case was re-evaluated. 

The court also overturned a release decision given to Ebubekir Harlar, another convict in the murder, ruling that his conviction was wrong and that he should have been charged with being the “perpetrator of the act” and not an “aide to the act.” Harlar’s case is expected to be evaluated by a Kayseri court. 

The court ordered the acquittal of two other police officers, Hüseyin Engin and Şaban Gökpınar.   

The Korkmaz family, meanwhile, said they would apply to the Constitutional Court to demand the convicts receive heavier sentences, arguing that the decision was not given based on charges of premeditated murder.

The family also said the probe over the violation of the right to life and the prosecution were not sufficient and that if the court did not impose heavier sentences on the convicts, they would take the case to the European Court of Human Rights.   

Korkmaz was beaten to death on June 2, 2013, by a group of officers and civilians in the Central Anatolian province of Eskişehir during the 2013 Gezi Park protests. He died on July 10, 2013, after spending 38 days in a coma.