Ankara, September 11: Seven defendants have gone on trial for committing 20 murders in Turkey’s southeast at the height of a Kurdish insurgency in the 1990s.
The trial started on Friday in Diyarbakir, the regional capital of the mainly Kurdish region, AFP reported on Friday.
According to the news agency, heavy security measures were adopted for the hearing, with dozens of police on patrol around the courthouse and strict checks on spectators allowed inside.
The trial comes following an investigation which was launched when wells excavated in the city of Silopi were found to contain human remains believed to be bones of individuals who were victims of killings of an illegal organization inside the gendarmerie in the ’90s, known as JITEM.
The suspects in the case include Kayseri Gendarmerie Brigade Commander Col. Cemal Temizoz, former Cizre Mayor Kamil Atag, Atag’s son Temer Atag, a former member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and later a state informant, Adem Yakin and other informants Firat Altin, Hidir Altug and Kukel Altug.
The prosecution claims that the group committed hundreds of murders of Kurds in the area under the guise of “anti-terrorism” efforts.
Temizoz was arrested in March based on the testimony of a number of secret witnesses. The testimonies of witnesses detailed five different incidents of murder committed by Temizoz and another colonel between 1993 and 1997.
—–Agencies