On 14 January 2015 in Cizre district of Şirnex (Şırnak) province Nihat Kazanhan, 12, was shot in the head and killed by police officer Nurbaki Göçmez. Cizre 1st High Criminal Court sentenced the accused police officer to life imprisonment but the sentence was reduced to 13 years and 4 months with discounts for "unjust provocation" and "good behaviour". The verdict was upheld by the Court of Appeal and the Court of Cassation. The Constitutional Court ruled "violation of the right to life" and ordered the family to pay 90 thousand TL in non-pecuniary damages. The Constitutional Court sent the file back to Cizre 1st High Criminal Court to eliminate the consequences of the violation. The court issued an arrest warrant for Mehmet Nurbaki Göçmez, whose retrial started. Göçmez, for whom an arrest warrant was issued with a red bulletin, could not be caught for a year. At the hearing held today at Cizre 1st High Criminal Court, it was decided to wait for the execution of the arrest warrant for Göçmez.

 

During the hearing where Kazanhan family and their lawyers were present, father Mehmet Emin Kazanhan demanded that the perpetrator police officer who murdered his son be caught as soon as possible and said "I want whatever is necessary to be done as soon as possible, I want the perpetrator to be found and punished".

 

'JUSTICE HAS NOT BEEN SERVED FOR 10 YEARS'

 

Mother Ayşe Kazanhan stated that justice has not been served for years and said, "Justice has not been served for 10 years. At every hearing you tell us that it will be found, but you can't find it because you don't look for it. We don't have the strength to bear it anymore. As the mother of a murdered child, I want the HTS records of the perpetrator's family to be examined. This perpetrator has a family. You can find him even through this family. He must be in contact with his family somehow. He murdered my son, he may harm other children, he may murder other children. Catch him and give him the punishment he deserves."

 

Lawyer Emine Özdemir from the Women and Children Commission of the Şirnex Bar Association repeated the previous statements and demanded that the missing issues in the file be resolved.

 

The prosecution requested the execution of the arrest warrant to be awaited and other missing issues in the file to be resolved.

 

HEARING ADJOURNED

 

The court decided to wait for the execution of the arrest warrant against the defendant and adjourned the trial to 30 April.