Lt. Mehmet Tümer was tried by the Elazığ 8th Corps Command Military Court on charges of causing the deaths of four soldiers when he handed a live hand grenade to one of them as punishment for sleeping during night watch on Aug. 17.He was tried for consciously and knowingly committing a crime and for negligence in his method of punishing the soldier.
Sgt. İbrahim Yaman and privates İbrahim Öztürk, Ali Osman Altın and Mesut Bulut were reported to have died in an explosion in the Karakoçan district of Elazığ on Aug. 17. Following the incident, the military stated that they were victims of a hand grenade accident. A report appeared in the Taraf daily claiming that the deaths of the four soldiers were not the result of an accident, as was initially claimed, but due to the lieutenant’s anger over a private falling asleep while on night watch.
The four soldiers were serving in the 2nd Motorized Private Battalion of the Karakoçan Gendarmerie Command in Elazığ when they were killed. During the ensuing investigation, other reports corroborated the one that had appeared in Taraf, claiming that the explosion was the result of a “punishment” in which Pvt. Öztürk of Mersin was forced to hold a hand grenade with the pin pulled out.
