Constitutional Court finds violations in dragging of man’s body by armored vehicle in Şırnak

The Constitutional Court ruled that the procedural aspect of the right to life and the prohibition of treatment incompatible with human dignity were violated during an investigation into the dragging of a man’s body by an armored police vehicle in 2015.

The court ordered the case file to be sent back to the Şırnak Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office for a reinvestigation into the incident involving Hacı Lokman Birlik.

The incident occurred during urban conflict in the country’s eastern and southeastern Kurdish-populated provinces in 2015. Authorities at the time accused Birlik of being a “terrorist.” Officers responsible for the incident were dismissed from duty but were subjected to rather lenient sanctions.

Mehmet Birlik, the brother of Hacı Lokman Birlik, evaluated the top court’s decision, which came 10 years and nine months after the incident. 

He told Mezopotamya Agency (MA) that the decision included statements from the police officers who tied Birlik’s body to the armored vehicle and recorded the footage.

“There are very clear contradictions in the statements,” Mehmet Birlik said. “The Constitutional Court did not take these issues into consideration in the ruling. The decision was made mostly regarding Hacı Lokman being dragged on the ground. Even though the decision is not exactly what we wanted, we approach it positively. At least the insult to the memory of the martyr was recognized in the ruling.”

Impunity

He also criticized the administrative sanctions previously handed down to the police officers involved.

“The police officers were given ridiculous punishments,” Birlik said. “A one-day salary deduction or a six-month suspension of promotion was not a punishment. This is neither moral nor conscientious, it is unacceptable. These individuals did this consciously. They wanted to instill fear in the Kurdish people.

“Even though they stated in their testimony that they took the videos as a souvenir, this is unacceptable. How can the torture of a deceased person be a souvenir? The penalty given to them is not a punishment, it is a reward. With these punishments, the state is sending the message, ‘No matter what crime you commit, you will not be punished.'”

(TY/VK)