In the “Ankara Jitem” trial, 17 defendants were acquitted.
The lawyers of the accused and the complainant were present at the hearing of the case, which was held at the Ankara 1st High Criminal Court.
The lawyers of the complainant demanded that the defendants be punished and arrested along with the verdict. The lawyers of the defendants stated that there is no concrete evidence in the case file that their clients are guilty.
After the break, the court board announced its decision. Accordingly, the file of the defendant Ziya Bandırmalıoğlu, who died during the trial, was ruled to be dropped, while the defendants Mehmet Agar, İbrahim Şahin, Mehmet Korkut Eken, Ayhan Çarkın, Ayhan Akça, Ercan Ersoy, Seyfettin Lap, Ayhan Özkan, Uğur Şahin, Alper Tekdemir, Enver Ulu, Yusuf Yüksel, Lokman Külünk, Abbas Semih Sueri, Nurettin Güven and Muhsin Korman were acquitted.
BACKGROUND OF THE CASE
In the indictment prepared by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, the first hearing of the case brought against 19 defendants was held on April 16, 2014. In the decision made on 13 December 2019, the case against Ahmet Demirel and Ziya Bandırmalıoğlu, who died during the trial, was dropped. The file of Mahmut Yıldırım, codenamed “Yeşil”, who could not be reached, was separated.
The defendants, including former Minister of Interior Mehmet Ağar, were acquitted and the file was sent to the Ankara Regional Court of Justice for judicial review. After completing the investigation, the Regional Court of Justice overturned the acquittal on April 5, 2021 and sent the file to the Ankara 1st High Criminal Court for a retrial.
After the Ankara Regional Court of Justice’s decision of reversal, in the case heard today at the Ankara 1st Heavy Penal Court, all defendants were acquitted.