One year after journalist’s murder, judicial authorities urged to try instigators

A year after journalist Cihan Hayirsevener was gunned down in the northwestern city of Bandirma, Reporters Without Borders urges the Turkish authorities to combat impunity by ensuring that those responsible for his murder are tried and punished. The founder and publisher of the local daily Güney Marmara Yasam, Hayirsevener was slain by a gunman identified as Serkan Erakkus he was walking down the city’s Atatürk Avenue on 18 December 2009. Reporters Without Borders hails the fact that Erakkus was quickly arrested and that his trial began on 31 August. But it is vital that those who contracted Erakkus to carry out the murder are also tried. Hayirsevener often wrote about alleged corruption and financial irregularities in the municipal administration. Prior to his death he was covering a case involving father and son Ihsan and Ilbey Kuruoglu, the owners of the rival local dailies Ilk Haber and Son Kursun, who were convicted of paying kickbacks to Bandirma’s mayor to secure real estate contracts. They are among 12 people who have been accused of masterminding Hayirsevener’s murder and who are charged with deliberate homicide, homicide with premeditation, possession of a firearm and “founding and belonging to an organization with a criminal purpose.” As the charges clearly refer to a premeditated and organized crime, it is surprising that a special Istanbul court charged with handling organized crime cases ruled on 15 October that the case should be tried before a Bandirma court on the grounds that the murder was committed by an individual, not an organization. Reporters Without Borders urges the Turkish judicial system to prosecute everyone who was involved in Hayirsevener’s murder, including the instigators. A fair trial must be carried in order to render justice to his family and to his memory. It would also sent a strong signal of support to all local journalists such as Haci Bogatekin, Ömer Celik and Durmus Tuna, who have been the victims of physical attacks and who are fighting to end impunity for crimes of violence against journalists in Turkey.