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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A court in Turkey’s southern province of Adana on Tuesday sentenced a police officer to 25 years for killing a young Syrian man last year, according to an international rights group.
Ali al-Hamdan, an 18-year-old Syrian refugee who was working as a textile worker, was shot dead by a Turkish police officer in Adana province’s Seyhan district on April 28, 2020 during the coronavirus lockdown. It caused public outcry at the time.
Amnesty International, which has been closely following the case, said in a tweet on Tuesday that the court decided to sentence the officer to life imprisonment for “deliberate killing” but later reduced it to 25 years.
The public prosecutor was seeking life imprisonment for the officer last month.
Hamdan’s lawyer has called for an aggravated life sentence because “a person was killed for no reason.”
The Syrian refugee was killed when he broke the coronavirus lockdown to go to work.
The police officer, attending the trial from prison through teleconference, demanded his release, saying “I did not want such a thing to happen. I did not shoot with the intent to kill. There is no such possibility. I still do not understand how the incident took place,” according to Amnesty.
This is not the first time Turkish police officers have been accused of murder but a few of them end up in jails.
More than one year after the killing of a Kurdish woman by a Turkish sergeant in Siirt province, a court refused to jail him instead decided to put him under house arrest for ten years. The officer, Musa Orhan, had abducted Ipel Er, 18, and sexually abused her. She reported this to the police and committed suicide.
Ali al-Hamdan, an 18-year-old Syrian refugee who was working as a textile worker, was shot dead by a Turkish police officer in Adana province’s Seyhan district on April 28, 2020 during the coronavirus lockdown. It caused public outcry at the time.
Amnesty International, which has been closely following the case, said in a tweet on Tuesday that the court decided to sentence the officer to life imprisonment for “deliberate killing” but later reduced it to 25 years.
The public prosecutor was seeking life imprisonment for the officer last month.
Hamdan’s lawyer has called for an aggravated life sentence because “a person was killed for no reason.”
The Syrian refugee was killed when he broke the coronavirus lockdown to go to work.
The police officer, attending the trial from prison through teleconference, demanded his release, saying “I did not want such a thing to happen. I did not shoot with the intent to kill. There is no such possibility. I still do not understand how the incident took place,” according to Amnesty.
This is not the first time Turkish police officers have been accused of murder but a few of them end up in jails.
More than one year after the killing of a Kurdish woman by a Turkish sergeant in Siirt province, a court refused to jail him instead decided to put him under house arrest for ten years. The officer, Musa Orhan, had abducted Ipel Er, 18, and sexually abused her. She reported this to the police and committed suicide.
Adana’nın Seyhan ilçesinde sokağa çıkma yasağına uymadığı için kontrol noktasından kaçan 17 yaşındaki bir çocuk, polis tarafından kalbinden vuruldu. Maalesef genç hayatını hastanede kaybetti. pic.twitter.com/x81JwgixMf
— Rapor (@raporturkiye) April 27, 2020
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