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Third witness withdraws testimony against death well colonel
In a petition he sent to the Diyarbakır Public Prosecutor's Office yesterday, the witness -- Mehmet Nuri Binzet -- asked to correct what he previously testified to prosecutors in a probe into human remains found in the Southeast.
Binzet stressed in his petition that he had testified against Col. Cemal Temizöz as he wanted to cause the colonel harm because of his own past sufferings.
“When I was put in prison, I suffered from serious psychological problems and started to search for what forced me to commit crimes. I believed my family was responsible for the crimes I committed. I was sent to serve in the military when I was very young. My family did not allow me to continue my education. I also hated Col. Temizöz for allowing me to serve in the military. He was aware of the situation of my family and could have prevented me from joining the military, but he did not. Thus, I testified against him because I wanted him to suffer,” the witness remarked.
Temizöz was arrested in March based on the testimony of a number of secret witnesses. The testimonies of witnesses detailed five different incidents of murder committed by Temizöz and another colonel between 1993 and 1997.
Two witnesses, codenamed Sokak Lambası (Street Lamp) and Tükenmez Kalem (Ball Pen), previously withdrew their testimony against the colonel. The third withdrawal of testimony in the probe, however, has raised question over whether the witnesses were under pressure to do so.
Binzet also stressed in his petition that he regretted having wanted other people to feel sorry for his own sufferings.
“No matter what the reason is, it is not worth making others suffer because of ungrounded slander,” he said.
In his testimony Binzet had claimed that the basement of the house of his brother, Kamil Atağ, was turned into an interrogation room in the early 1990s, adding that many people who were suspected of having relations with members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) were interrogated in that room.
“I participated in those interrogations several times. Once, upon an order from Col. Temizöz, my brother detained two guys -- İskan Arslan and Nadir Neyci -- and brought them to the interrogation room. Both of them were killed there after the interrogation,” Binzet had claimed.
A recently announced indictment in the investigation into remains found in wells in Şırnak's Silopi and Cizre districts demands that Temizöz be charged with establishing an organization with the aim of committing criminal acts and inciting murder.
According to the indictment, Temizöz set up a group in Cizre after becoming a company commander. The group made extensive use of state power to detain people, interrogate them and kill them. The indictment, which deals with 55 unsolved murder cases, demands life sentences without the possibility parole for the suspects.
Temizöz faces one to nine life sentences without the possibility of parole if convicted.
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