The third hearing of murder of Aytac Baran, former head of Yeni Ihya Der Associaiton who was killed by PKK, was held at Kayseri 2nd High Criminal Court.

In the trial of two defendants; while the case against Sezgin Demirok, who was killed in an armed conflict by police, was nonsuited, the other defendant Diyadin Gumus was acquitted from ‘willful murder and being a member of PKK terrorist organization’.

Evaluating the expert report, in the trial, it is reasoned that face matching wasn’t conducted including the defendant and other people, whose faces aren’t identified, appear in the footage.

Making a statement after the hearing, case lawyer Hasan Bozdas underlined the deficiencies during investigation phase.

The testimony of the anonymous witness wasn’t taken

Bozdas said “We demanded deciphering of the security footages displaying the incident moment by an expert and determination of the defendants if they are seen in the footage at the previous trials. The court dispatched the footages to the Gendarmerie Criminal Laboratory. We also petitioned that there is a second case investigating the same incident in Diyarbakır so this investigation file must be requested from Diyarbakır to find out if there emerge new evidences and results that may affect our case. However the court denied our demand, the court granted our request to question the anonymous witness. Yet, the court couldn’t take the testimony of the secret witness since he wasn’t able to be reached. The image analysis came to the court and it was indicated that the defendants weren’t identified in the images. The court ruled for acquittal of the defendant from the charges of ‘willful murder and being a member of PKK terrorist organization”

Head of Yeni-İhya Der Association and a member of HUDA PAR Aytac Baran was murdered on 9 June 2015 while he was going to association office from his house. (ILKHA)