Photographs ruined in scandalous TÜBİTAK report to the Berkin Elvan trial

The trial continues in which Fatih Dalagalı, the suspected killer of Berkin Elvan, who lost his
life having sustained head injuries from a gas canister fired by the police in the course of the
Gezi Park protests, stands charged with possible intentional killing.
Prior to the trial being held at Istanbul Serious Crime Court No 17, the police and security
staff were seen to take wide-reaching security measures in the vicinity of the judicial
complex. The police were observed making searches metres away from the judicial complex
building, as were security staff at the door to the courtroom. With Berkin Elvan’s father Sami
Elvan told at the door to the courtroom that he was to undergo a “thorough search”, this was
dispensed with following opposition voiced by CHP parliamentarian Mahmut Tanal. Father
Sami Elvan, mother Gülsüm Elvan and sister Özge Elvan attended the hearing. Alongside
CHP MPs Mahmut Tanal, Gamze İlgezdi, Hilmi Yarayıcı and Ali Haydar Hakverdi and
singer Melike Demirağ, appearing in the courtroom as spectators were Ali İsmail Korkmaz’s
mother Emel Korkmaz, Ethem Sarısülük’s mother Sayfi Sarısülük and Ahmet Atakan’s
mother Emsal Atakan. To prevent the family from being left on its own following the recent
detention of the attorneys on the case, legal organisations including the Libertarian Lawyers
Platform were present in the courtroom.

Power cut at the judicial complex

The court tried to link the defendant police officer Fatih Dalgalı, who is assigned to Van
Police Directorate, into the hearing via video, but, due to a power cut in the judicial complex
where the defendant was located, no contact could be made for a long time.
At the start of yesterday’s hearing held at Istanbul Serious Crime Court No 17, it was stated
that the Radio and Television Corporation had sent correspondence to the court indicating
that it lacked sufficient experts for the riot control vehicle footage to be enhanced. The
court’s Presiding Judge Canel Rüzgar said that the Scientific and Technological Research
Council of Turkey had remitted enhanced footage to the file. Presiding Judge Rüzgar stated
that at a subsequent stage the footage would be played to witnesses and questions asked.

The report is disgraceful

One of the Elvan family’s attorneys, Can Atalay proceeded to address the court and said that
the defendant police officer should be present in the courtroom because his examination and
identification had not been completed. Atalay, said, “The Scientific and Technological
Research Council of Turkey report is disgraceful. You, too, have seen that there has been no
enhancement of the photographs on certain pages. Some of the photographs have been
rendered even less distinct. We seek the giving of the earliest possible hearing date and for a
criminal complaint to be made against the Radio and Television Corporation, because its
reply is defamatory in nature. It is also necessary for the defendant to be present here from a
defence right point of view.” The hearing prosecutor further called on the riot control vehicle
footage to be sent to the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey and the
Gendarmerie Criminal Branch, and for the police officials who were at the scene to be
identified from the footage following enhancement. The prosecutor also sought the hearing as
witnesses of the staff on duty on the day of the event at Okmeydanı Teaching and Research
Hospital and the police officers in the entity in which the defendant police officer served.
One of the Elvan family’s attorneys, Çiğdem Akbulut proceeded to address the court and,
recalling her colleagues who were case lawyers and had recently been detained, said, “The
sole source of the operation is an unidentified person’s unfounded allegations against the
People’s Law Office. The sole true thing they have said is the comment, ‘They are pursing
cases with a high public profile like the Berkin case.’ We should not be subsumed under a
common identity with our clients, but in this case we are both his lawyers and Berkin is also
our child.”

Adjourned until 13 December

The court ordered in its interim ruling that the police officers who were at the scene - Kadir
Eyüp Hambaloğlu and the officers wielding canister launchers, and the people who were in
the vicinity of Berkin Elvan at the scene of the incident be heard as witnesses. The bench, not
reordering the forcible attendance of police officer Celal Büyük, who failed to attend the
hearing despite his forcible attendance having been ordered at the previous session, ordered
the defendant policeman to attend the subsequent hearing via video link. The bench once
more dismissed the applications by the Elvan family’s attorneys for the defendant to be
detained. The bench also dismissed the application for a criminal complaint to be filed over
the reply citing a lack of experts by the Radio and Television Corporation, which had been
asked to enhance the riot control vehicle footage, and adjourned the hearing until 13
December.

Sami Elvan: If he is in the right, let him come and defend himself – we do not eat people

Father Sami Elvan said the following in the statement he made after the hearing:
“Today’s hearing was not just Berkin Elvan’s hearing, but the hearing of all people who live
in Turkey. We as a family that has suffered injustice stand as one with the Gezi families so
that no such injustice can happen to anyone else. We are fighting for the whole of society
without drawing any distinctions. These kids did not lay down their bodies for nothing. These
kids are all our kids. We want you to stand up for these kids. Our only wish is for the law and
justice. They are trying to make out that our kid was a terrorist and to silence our lawyers. We
will not be cowed in this way. We are not and will not be afraid of these things. We have one
body and they cannot kill us more than that. We are the living dead, anyhow. That defendant

should be tried here. He should appear in front of us and prove in front of us that he is in the
right. If he is in the right, he should not appear in front of us in a mask, glasses and a false
moustache. Let him come here and defend himself like a human. We do not eat people.”

One of the Elvan family’s attorneys, Can Atalay, also said the following:

“We are here. Come what may, despite the detention of lawyers, we are here. Even though
the detained lawyer colleagues are asked, ‘Why are you pursuing the Berkin Elvan case?’ we
will continue to be here. We are all together. We want justice. Not for ourselves; not just for
Berkin. We want justice because Berkin has become a symbol for everyone in this land who
wants equality and freedom. We want justice for the seventeen lawyer colleagues of ours who
are currently in jail. We also want justice for our two lawyer colleagues who are in Bakırköy.
We will be here on 13 December, and we will be here after that.”

Finally, Taksim Solidarity member Mücella Yapıcı said the following:

“The Gezi solidarity, the most democratic of struggles for rights and a social struggle, can
never be branded terrorism and the Gezi children cannot be branded terrorists. We are here;
we are everywhere; all together. Today, they did not even permit access here to our banner.
Let those here who fear Berkin’s picture know that Gezi did not die and it lives. This is only
the beginning. On with the struggle.”