In the case of Şahin Öner, who was killed after being crushed by an armoured police vehicle in Diyarbakır (Amed) on 20 February 2013, the court is once again steering the proceedings toward impunity. The three-year-and-four-month prison sentence previously handed down to police officer Selahattin Korkmaz for “causing death by negligence” was overturned by the Regional Court of Appeal, which described the incident as a “simple traffic accident.” Finding the sentence excessive, the court ordered a retrial and, at the first hearing in the reopened case, once again sought a conviction on the same charge.
The Şahin Öner case has once again laid bare the judiciary’s entrenched practice of impunity and its reflex to shield law enforcement officers. Many cases in which the perpetrator was a police officer have so far ended either in impunity or in sentences so lenient they amount to rewards. Despite the existence of evidence, witness testimonies and formal criminal complaints, officers have not been detained and have continued to serve, while families’ demands for justice have gone unanswered.
The killings of Helin Şen, Nihat Kazanhan, Ceylan Önkol, Mehmet Uytum, Aydın Erdem and Efe Tektekin by police are among the stark examples of this pattern of impunity. In a number of cases, officers who were not held to account went on to commit further crimes in other locations. Court panels that refrained from imposing penalties, invoking “lawful conduct” or “security” grounds, sought to normalise and legitimise these deaths.
According to the report titled “Violations of children’s right to life in the eastern and south-eastern Anatolia regions in 2012,” prepared by the Diyarbakır Branch of the Human Rights Association (IHD), 569 children lost their lives between 1988 and 2013 because of the conflict.
The report also states that in Kurdistan, 82 incidents involving armoured vehicles and vehicles under the control of law enforcement over the past 15 years resulted in the deaths of 21 children and injuries to 23 others.
Yakup Guven, an executive of the IHD Amed Branch, said the rise in such crimes and deaths alongside impunity was no coincidence, stressing that this policy extends beyond the courts and has been implemented systematically over time.
Guven, who is also the lawyer in the Şahin Öner case, said: “From the very beginning of the process, there have been developments that have raised public suspicion. The case file concerning the killing of Şahin Öner, both at the investigation stage and during the prosecution, once again reminds us of, and clearly demonstrates, the classic system of impunity we are facing.”
An attempt was made to tamper with evidence from the outset
Guven said that the official statements circulated by some media outlets in the initial phase did not reflect the truth, and continued:
“Şahin Öner was killed after being struck by a police armoured vehicle. Yet in the immediate aftermath, several media organisations shared what was presented as a statement by the governor’s office. The statement claimed that a young man had lost his life after an explosive device in his hand detonated in the Şehitlik neighbourhood. From the very start of the investigation, this created public suspicion and concern that evidence was being tampered with and that the defendants were being rewarded with impunity.
Such a statement issued at the outset of the investigation, of course, also influenced the investigative authorities and had an impact on the judicial process itself. When the reports that later emerged are assessed together, Şahin Öner died after being struck by the vehicle, and that the initial statements aimed at obscuring the evidence were untrue.”
Crimes committed with impunity are being legitimised
Guven said the system of impunity is not confined to legal mechanisms alone, but constitutes a comprehensive structure encompassing politics, the bureaucracy, the police and the judiciary. He said this structure produces an outcome that both shields the state and legitimises crimes, while reinforcing among perpetrators the perception that “there will be no punishment.”
Yakup Guven said the fight against impunity should not be left to lawyers alone, adding that civil society, bar associations, trade unions and the wider public must voice their demands forcefully. He said the state must confront the systematic crimes committed in the past, issue an apology, activate compensation mechanisms, and provide guarantees that similar violations will not be repeated.
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