Mardin Heavy Penal Court No 1 ruled on 15 October 2024 in the case against the robbery and looting incidents in Nisêbîn (Nusaybin) district of Mêrdîn (Mardin) during the curfew declared on 14 March 2016. Then District Police Chief Kadir Şen, Deputy Chief Ahmet Tuğcu, TEM Branch Chief Ünal Uyar, police officers Mahmut Öztekin and Müslüm Bozkurt, demolition company owner Mahmut Çomoğlu, company employee Arif Kara, Abdülkerim Sezişli, who was said to have acted as an intermediary between the police officers and citizens, were tried without arrest.

 

ACQUITTAL FOR MANAGERS, REMISSION FOR POLICE OFFICERS

 

In the indictment, the defendants were accused of "bribery and embracery", "coercive extortion offence" and "threats, causing embezzlement or extortion by neglecting the duty of supervision". The court acquitted the then District Police Chief Kadir Şen, Deputy Chief Ahmet Tuğcu and TEM Branch Chief Ünal Uyar. In addition, the charges against Mahmut Çomoğlu, the contractor to whom the demolition work was assigned, were dropped due to his death, while Fırat Abdulkerim Sezişli was acquitted.

 

The court sentenced only police officers Mahmut Öztekin and Müslüm Bozkurt and company employee Arif Kara to 4 years for "giving and receiving bribes" and reduced their sentences to 3 years and 4 months with a 1/6 discount.

 

REASON FOR REMISSION FOR BRIBERY 

 

The court also announced its reasoned judgement. In its reasoned verdict, the court stated that the police officers Mahmut Öztekin and Müslüm Bozkurt and Arif Kara "provided benefits by giving money, this situation is fixed with the camera footage, the defences of the defendants in this regard are contradictory, in this sense, the exchange of money between the parties is considered to be fixed in relation to bribery". However, the court stated that "the possible negative effects of the sentence given to the defendants on the future of the defendants is a reason for discretionary reduction in their favour" and concluded that it would be "in accordance with equity and the law" to reduce their sentences in this direction.

 

STATEMENTS CHANGED, EVIDENCE NOT SEEN

 

Despite the presence of the video footage of the looted items in the file, the statements of the principal of the school where the items were placed that he was threatened by District Police Chief Kadir Şen, the statements of the police officers carrying the items, radio recordings and the video footage of the exchange of money in a hotel, the court cited the withdrawal of complaints by some of the complainants and the subsequent change of testify by some witnesses as grounds for acquittal on the offences of "coercive extortion offence" and "threats, causing embezzlement or extortion by neglecting the duty of supervision".

 

In the relevant judgement, the court stated the following, "(...) that the defendants have committed the coercive extortion offence, which is attributed to them, cannot be proved beyond any doubt, and although a public case has been filed against the defendants Kadir Şen, Ahmet Tuğcu and Ünal Uyar for the offence of extortion by neglecting their supervisory duties, since it has been concluded that the offence of extortion is not fixed for the other defendants, it cannot be mentioned that the defendants, who are police chiefs and deputy police chiefs as of the date of the offence, have committed the offence of extortion by neglecting their supervisory duties (...)"

 

ABOUT THE CASE

 

During the curfew in Nisêbîn, people's houses were broken into and their valuables were looted and an investigation was initiated upon the complaints of some citizens. Many police officers who were heard within the scope of the investigation confessed what happened and testified that they acted on the instructions of their superiors and that their superiors sold household items taken from the houses in the district, engaged in bribery relations and confiscated jewellery from the houses. A.T., the principal of the school where the household goods were seized, stated that the items were collected at the school and that the police officers came to take the items and that when he demanded an official letter, he was threatened by the then District Police Chief Kadir Şen and his deputies with the words "I will open an investigation against you" and "Who do you trust to ask for an official letter like this?". A.T. had also submitted images of the looted items to the file.

 

However, despite the lawsuit filed, Kadir Şen was appointed as Tire District Police Chief and later promoted as 1st Class Police Chief. In another case filed against Kadir Şen and his assistant Ünal Uyar due to the looting incidents in the district, Şen was acquitted. Although Uyar was sentenced to 22 years in prison, it was revealed that he fled from Turkey shortly after his release on the grounds that he had "no suspicion of escape".

 

MA / Ahmet Kanbal