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Lieutenant confesses to causing death of 4 soldiers
Lt. Mehmet Tümer appeared before a military court on Wednesday on charges of causing the deaths of four soldiers by handing one a live hand grenade to punish the soldier for sleeping during his night watch. The lieutenant acknowledged his responsibility and said he regretted his error in judgment.
“I would never want my four soldiers to die in this way. They [the deaths] were not something deliberate. They were the results of the inexperience of my 56-day work experience. I could not envisage what could have happened,” testified the lieutenant.
Reports in August said four soldiers were killed when a hand grenade carried by one of the soldiers exploded accidentally as they were patrolling a rural area against the prospect of a terrorist attack by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Four other soldiers were injured in the blast. However, soldiers' testimonies revealed that Lt. Tümer wanted to punish Pvt. İbrahim Öztürk for falling asleep during his night watch.
The lieutenant forced the private to hold a live hand grenade.
Tümer said the hand grenade would not explode as long as the private did not let go of the locking cap. The lieutenant said he would return to replace the safety pin later. When the lieutenant left, the private moved closer to other soldiers; the hand grenade then slipped from his grasp due to the perspiration on his hands. The blast resulted in the deaths of four soldiers.
“Sgt. Şakin Akçan told me that Öztürk was sleeping during his night watch. He gave me Öztürk's hand grenade. The next day I asked Öztürk where his hand grenade was. He grinned and said it was with him. I told him to show it, but he couldn't. I pulled the pin from the grenade and gave it to Öztürk. I told him to hold it carefully and that I would replace its pin in a few minutes. Öztürk, however, went close to his friends, showing the grenade and laughing. I told him not to walk around. He didn't listen to me. He said he would set off the grenade. I told him to return to his position,” Tümer said.
Öztürk's father, Hacı Öztürk, accused the lieutenant of imposing a disproportional punishment on his son. “If my son was sleeping during his night watch, the lieutenant was supposed to extend the term of his military service. The lieutenant, however, waited for my son to go near his friends and threw the hand grenade at them,” claimed the father.
Sgt. Soner Süvari said he witnessed the moment of explosion. “I asked Lt. Tümer why he had given the soldier a live hand grenade. He said he wanted to teach the soldier a lesson. I said it would be better to place the pin back into the hand grenade. Tümer said he would do it later. Then the explosion occurred. Tümer started yelling. ‘God, what did I do? İbrahim, why did you go there?'” noted the sergeant.
The court adjourned the trial until a later date to listen to more eyewitnesses and refused a request by Lt. Tümer's lawyer impose a press ban on the incident.
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