Page 26 - 2020 Yılında Diyarbakır Barosu Başkanı, Yönetim Kurulu ve Baro Üyesi Avukatlara Yönelik Soruşturma ve Kovuşturmalara Dair Rapor

DIYARBAKIR BAR ASSOCIATION DIYARBAKIR BAR ASSOCIATION
LAWYERS’ RIGHTS CENTER LAWYERS’ RIGHTS CENTER

1) The Course of the Murder of the President of Our Bar
Association Tahir Elçi, Summary of the Investigation and
Prosecution of Tahir Elçi’s Murder
In Turkey the Diyarbakır Bar Association has long been except for its professional
problems also it works about the law, human rights and social issues and preparing
reports, the Bar Association helps awareness in society wiyh these activities and also its
identity is one of the highest, and the most influential professional organizations. Fort
his reason, the Diyarbakır Bar Association and its members have also been affected
by the systematic pressure on lawyers in recent years. In order to better understand
what happened today, it is necessary to read the trial process that followed with
the targeting and murder of Tahir Elçi, the heaviest price paid by the Diyarbakır Bar
Association.
Tahir Elçi said ‘PKK is not a terrorist organization’ in the ‘Tarafsız Bölge’ program
presented by Ahmet Hakan on CNN Türk Channel on 15 October 2015. Fort his
reason, first, the TV channel was fined 700 thousand Turkish Liras and then Tahir Elçi
was detained in Diyarbakır on 20 November 2015 in his bar association’s room and
was brought to İstanbul.
Tahir Elçi was released by the Bakırköy 2nd High Criminal Court on the condition
of judicial control, although the prosecution referred to the court for his arrest and
indictment was prepared against Tahir Elçi, demanding a prison sentence of up to
7.5 years for making propaganda for a terrorist organization5.
8 days after he was detained, the President of the Diyarbakır Bar Association was
killed on 28 November 2015, while he was making a press statement in front of the
Dört Ayaklı Minare ( Four Legged Minaret) in Diyarbakır Sur.
After Tahir Elçi was killed, an ‘investigation commission’ was established in the
Diyarbakır Bar Association to conduct the investigation effectively. According to
the information which provided by the investigation commission, the crime scene
investigation was requested at least 3 times after the murder but each time, the
prosecution team, which would conduct an investigation on the scene, left the
scene due to the sounds of the ongoing conflict.
Many illegal violations have been detected; these are; crime scene investigation
only 111 days after Tahir Elçi’s murder, A 13- second interruption has been detected
in some camera recordings including the shooting moment, two years after the
murder, camera footage of a workplace was resolved in 2017 and some records
were not available, the Public Officials under suspicion were heard not as ‘ suspects’
but as ‘ knowledgeable’ or ‘ witnesses’, the report which prepared by the Chief Civil
Inspector and sent by the Interior Ministry was hidden.
The indictment which prepared 4 years and 4 months later regarding the murder of
Tahir Elçi, was accepted by the Court. At the first hearing held on 21 October 2020,
due to the court’s insistence on hearing the defendants through the SEGBİS system
and a series of unlawful decisions, the lawyers of the Elçi family demanded a refusal
against the court members so the hearing was suspended6.
A criminal investigation has been initiated for words spoken by a defense organization,
a bar association president in a TV show, an arrest warrant has been issued for Elçi
and then he was killed, and all of these are a part of the systematic attack on the
Diyarbakır Bar Association and are the worst.
Attacks and harassments against our profession and colleagues continue to
increase even after that day. Lawyers are detained, arrested and punished for their

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