11 May 2010 / TODAY’S ZAMAN WITH WIRES, İSTANBUL
The Justice Ministry announced yesterday that it has decided to change the venue of the trial of two brothers charged with murder in the eastern province of Muş’s Bulanık district from Samsun to Ankara for security reasons after the former leader of the now-defunct Democratic Society Party (DTP), Ahmet Türk, was punched in the face outside the Samsun courtroom hearing the trial.
The ministry announced that it had decided in line with the Samsun chief prosecutor’s request to relocate the trial. In April, Türk was punched in the face after a press conference outside the courtroom. The attacker, a coffeehouse employee, was detained, but the incident was followed by an attack on a police car in Samsun’s Ladik district that killed two policemen and injured a local resident. Policeman Hüseyin Koç (50) died at the scene while Malik Saykal (36) died at Ondokuz Mayıs University Hospital. Some speculated that the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) might have staged the attack in retaliation for the punch. The Samsun Prosecutor’s Office applied to the Justice Ministry in late April requesting a change of venue. The Samsun court is now expected to rule the case outside its jurisdiction and refer it to a court in Ankara.Two people were killed and 10 others injured on Dec. 16 of last year after Turan Bilen, a storeowner, opened fire on demonstrators protesting the closure of the pro-Kurdish DTP by the Constitutional Court on Dec. 11, 2009. The case was heard at the Samsun 1st High Criminal Court for security reasons. Bilen’s brother Metin Bilen was also accused of involvement in the killings. The family of Necmi Oral, one of the victims, was present at Monday’s hearing. Türk and Aysel Tuğluk from the now-defunct DTP attended the hearing, as did Sırrı Sakık and Nuri Yaman from the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), the DTP’s successor.
