Police who shot Kemal Kurkut remains free

On Monday, the first hearing of the retrial over the killing of 23-year-old university student Kemal Kurkut, , began at the Diyarbakır 7th High Criminal Court.

Once again, the court board ruled that the disciplinary investigation file shall be requested from the Provincial Disciplinary Board, the police officers who bore witnesses shall be heard again and the requests for arresting the defendant shall be rejected. The next hearing of the case will be held on 15 September 2022.

The Diyarbakır Regional Court of Justice, recently ruled that “no offense can be attributed to the police officer on trial” and concluded that the murder was committed “within a legal framework”.

Kemal Korkut was a university student and was shot to death by police during the Newroz celebrations in Turkey’s Kurdish-majority Diyarbakır province in 2017.