06/10/2017 | Writer: Yıldız Tar
Lawyer Fırat Söyle: ‘The decision is a gift for the suspect’.
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The Court reduced the punishment of Syrian gay refugee Wisam Sankari’s murderer on the grounds of ‘unjust provocation’ and ‘good conduct time’, and sentenced him to 15-year imprisonment. Lawyer Fırat Söyle: “The decision is a gift for the suspect”.
In the lawsuit of Syrian gay refugee Wisam Sankari’s murder happened in Istanbul last year, court gave the ruling.
Last trial of the lawsuit was tried in 19th High Criminal Court on September 28. About the suspect B.A., the court ruled on to apply 'unjust provocation' and 'good state reduction'.
Unjust provocation and good state reduction!
While B.A. was prosecuted on the grounds of ‘killing with a monstrous feeling and torment’, the court ruled on the ‘willful murder’. B.A. has been sentenced to life imprisonment.
Then the life imprisonment was reduced to 18-year imprisonment on the grounds that the crime took place ‘during a fight’; therefore, it is unknown who start the first unfair action.
In addition to the unjust provocation reduction, the court delegation also made a reduction of punishment in appreciation of the 'good state of the suspect during the trial’.
The justified decision has not been stated yet by the court.
“Indictment prosecutor’s effort went for nothing”
Lawyer Fırat Söyle emphasized that the trial and the final decision were completely the opposite of the indictment of the case that the prosecutor spent lots of effort to prepare:
‘The indictment was actually demanded him to be prosecuted for 'monstrous feelings and killing by torture', 'killing someone who cannot defend himself' and 'intentional killing'. However, the trial process was completely different than prosecutor’s indictment. When looking at the trial process, we clearly see that the public prosecutor might have probably thought like ‘what is happened has happened, so it’ not a big deal’. These two prosecutors’ thoughts are completely different than each other. Though the indictment was very well prepared that we could not even see in any LGBTI murder case.”
“Application of unjust provocation reduction cannot be accepted!”
Söyle also criticized that while court was ruling, they only apply ‘wilful killing’ crime to the case:
“As reported in Forensic Medicine report, B.A. injured him in 39 places in his body, and 16 of them are deadly. However, the final ruling was only for ‘wilful killing’. This decision means that the court thinks like there was no unlawful thing happened during the incident. They had a fight and it was reciprocal. By doing so, they reduced the punishment on the grounds of unjust provocation. This is unacceptable. While he was injured 39 times by a knife, crushed by a stone and be-headed at the end, there can be nothing like unjust provocation.
“Likewise the testimony of B.A.’s ex-boyfriend saying while they were together, B.A. was violent to him as well was not considered at all during the ruling process. These all shows us that judges and the public prosecutor intentionally ignored the realities and tried to protect the murderer somehow.”
“The court was ignorant to HIV”
Söyle stressed that B.A.’s statements like ‘Wisam told me that he is diagnosed with HIV, so I got angry’ cannot be a ground to apply ‘unjust provocation’.
“It is obvious that the court and public prosecutor do not know anything about HIV. In order to investigate the case they could get information from at least one forensic doctor, besides just taking blood from the suspect.
“The final ruling is a gift for the suspect”
Söyle stated that the reason of this ‘easy’ ruling is that LGBTI community and general public as well as Sankari’s family did not follow up the case enough.
“Unfortunately, while Sankari was killed tragically, the final ruling was a gift for the suspect. This decision means that he will be released 7-8 years later. The case would probably be transferred to Supreme Court. I hope the members of Supreme Court would be more sensitive, so the judgement would be reversed.”
What happened?
Syrian gey refugee Muhammed Wisam Sankari went out from his home in Aksaray on 23 July and found death in Istanbul Yenikapı on 25 July. His head was cut and his body became unrecognizable when he was found. Wisam had been threatened again before, kidnapped by a group of men and raped after all.
Click for the article on the murder.
How was the case process?
Lawyer Fırat Söyle informed KaosGL.org about the legal process. After Istanbul Police Department Homicide Bureau started to investigate the case, it is stated that B.A. was caught by police on 22 August in Bursa where he escaped after the incident.
After his capture, B.A. was brought back to Istanbul and arrested. In the murder case tried in 19th High Criminal Court, it is written that B.A. was judged for ‘aggravated life imprisonment’ on the grounds that is “killing with a monterous feeling and torment”.
Crime scene investigation in the indictment and the reports of the Forensic Medicine Institute indicate that Sankari was killed by numerous piercing / cutting tools, tried to be burried a small pit full of blood.
During the investigation, the suspect B.A.'s ex-boyfriend A.K. said: "we were ex-lovers, and he was constantly beating me because I did not want sexual intercourse."
Suspect B.A. said in the first trial in 24th November 2016:
“We met via Facevbook, and met two times in Taksim. In the second meeting, he said that he wanted to have sex with me. I accepted, then we drunk alcohol and had sex in a hotel in Taksim. One month after the intercourse, his friend called me and told that Wisam was diagnosed with AIDS.”
Then B.A. accepted that he murdered Sankari:
“I asked him ‘Are you really diagnosed with AIDS?’ and he answered ‘Yes’. When he said that I got angry” he said and he confessed that he killed Sankari by crushing his head by a stone. After he crushed the head, he stabbed Sankari many times as well.
B.A.’s ex-boyfriend: He was threatening me as well
His ex-boyfriend A.K. said:
“He was my ex-boyfriend. We were together one month. We did not have sexual intercourse, because of that he was beating me regularly. He threatened me with a knife. He is such a person you should be scared. After that sometimes he continued to threaten me also.”
On the other hand, according to the HIV test made by Kartal Dr. Lütfi Kırdar Training and Research Hospital B.A.’s blood test was negative.
Translation: Damla Umut Uzun
Related news:
Syrian gay refugee killed in Istanbul
UN Women and UNFPA condemn hate murders in Turkey
Wisam Sankari’s murderer confessed!
Tags: human rights
