As the trial of seven defendants, including Col. Temizöz, suspected of involvement in 20 unsolved murders in the Southeast, continues in Diyarbakır, the wife of one of these victims, Ayşe Karagöz, told Today’s Zaman that her husband was abducted by Kamil Atağ and his brothers in 1993 and disappeared. Claiming that they killed her husband, Karagöz said she filed a complaint against Atağ and his bothers but that the complaint was dismissed by Temizöz. Stating that she was threatened after she requested the body of her husband, she said: “Temizöz granted them [Atağ and his brothers] full authority, and they disposed of my husband’s body. I told them, ‘You killed my husband, at least give his body to me’.”
In the meantime, in yesterday’s hearing the Diyarbakır 6th Criminal Court rejected a request from defense lawyers to refer the case to a military court in accordance with a recent annulment by the Constitutional Court of a law that allows military officers to be tried in civilian courts.
 Col. Cemal Temizöz |
Temizöz’s lawyers requested the case be transferred to a military court on the grounds that they had lost confidence in the court; however, the judicial panel unanimously rejected the request, the third such demand by defense lawyers since the beginning of the trial. The trial is the culmination of an investigation launched when wells excavated in the town of Silopi were found to contain human remains, believed to be the bones of individuals who were victims of an illegal organization inside the gendarmerie in the ‘90s known as JİTEM. The other suspects in the case are former Cizre Mayor Kamil Atağ’s son Tamer Atağ, a former member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and later a state informant, Adem Yakın and other informants, including Fırat Altın, Hıdır Altuğ and Kukel Altuğ.
The suspects are accused of murder, forming an organization to commit a crime and inciting murder. The prosecution demands nine consecutive life sentences for Temizöz, seven life sentences for Atağ and Yakın, two life sentences for Temer Atağ, three for Fırat Altın and life for Kukel Atağ -- all without the possibility of parole. The prosecution claims that Temizöz formed a group comprising village guards, ex-PKK members and special sergeants, ostensibly to fight the PKK, but says the group was instead involved in illegal activities.
The court approved defense lawyers’ request for the removal of several judges from the trial.
