Turkish man acquitted of murder after more than six years in jail

İsmail Saymaz – İZMİR

A man sentenced to 21.5 years for murder in the Aegean province of İzmir walked free after serving six years and seven months in prison as a court overturned his conviction. The man was given 104,000 Turkish Liras (approximately $30,000) in compensation, which is low, considering he spent his youth in prison.

İbrahim Uyar was found guilty in 2010, at the age of 16, relating to the death of a 50-year-old prostitute in İzmir’s Ödemiş district.

Gülseren G. was found stabbed to death at her house on July 19, 2008. The police determined that the last person who was at the woman’s house was a 25-year-old named Hamdi Gündüz. But Gündüz claimed that instead, his acquaintance Uyar was behind the murder.

Uyar, who was in 8th grade at the time, denied the allegations, but the court found him guilty on murder charges following a two-year-long judgment process and was given a sentence of 21.5 years. Gündüz, on the other hand, received ten years of imprisonment.

Later on, the first department of the Supreme Court reversed the conviction judgment on Uyar on the grounds that the evidence on him was not persuasive, whereas it approved the ruling on Gündüz. Then, on June 26, 2015, Ödemiş High Penalty Court acquitted Uyar on murder charges, after which Uyar opened a lawsuit against the Finance Ministry for “false imprisonment.”

Uyar was then compensated on July 18 in the amount of 104,561 liras (approximately $30,000), which however, he does not find enough considering the time he served. “I could not go to school. I have been having financial problems. I could not adjust to the outside. Should the worth of seven years be this?” Uyar says, in protest.