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KurdistanObserver.com
Unrest, Arrests, Amid murder Trial of Turkish Police
ANKARA, Oct 24 (AFP) - Demonstrators
clashed with police Monday in a western Turkish town where four policemen are on
trial for the murder of a 12-year-old Kurdish boy and his father, the Anatolia
news agency reported.
About 40 people who wanted to observe the trial were denied access to the
court of assizes in Eskisehir, the agency reported.
The group then threw stones at riot police, who made a dozen arrests.
The chairman of Turkey's human rights association, Yusuf Alatas, was among
those prevented from entering the courtroom, Anatolia reported.
Security in Eskisehir was beefed up ahead of the trial. Armoured vehicles
were brought in from nearby towns.
The trial concerns the death of Ahmet Kaymaz and his son Ugur, who was 12
when they were killed in front of their house in Kiziltepe, a town in the
Kurd-majority province of Mardin.
Police have said that the two were killed during an operation targetting
armed Kurdish rebels. Neighbours and local human rights groups insist the two
were unarmed civilians.
A parliamentary enquiry concluded there had been "serious negligence" by the
police and that Kaymaz and his son could have been apprehended peacefully.
The trial of the four policemen opened in Mardin but was moved to Eskisehir
at the request of defence lawyers who said they feared for their clients'
safety.
The case is viewed as a test of Turkey's undertaking to respect the rule of
law at a time when it is negotiating its accession to the European Union. |
