Lawyer says unable to access case file on death of Gabonese university student
The lawyer of the family of the 17-year-old Gabonese university student Jennah Danys Dinabongho Ibouanga, whose death has not yet been clarified, has said that prosecutors have restricted access to the investigation file. Lawyer Bahadır Şeker also said that Karabük University rectorship has been threatening foreign national students about not speaking up against Dinabongho’s death.
Mustafa Özdemir / Gazete Duvar
The lawyer of the deceased 17-year-old Gabonese university student Jennah Danys Dinabongho Ibouanga, who was mysteriously found dead in the northern Karabük province’s Filyos Stream last month, has said that the local prosecutor’s office was refusing to include him in the case.
Lawyer Kerim Bahadır Şeker said that there is a restriction order on the case file and the content of it was being “hidden in a systematic way.”
Şeker said that he wants to access the case file as the lawyer of the Gabon government and Dinabongho's family, but authorities are preventing him. “There is a malicious intention here. Unfortunately, we are facing either inexperience in the judiciary or a problem stemming from malicious intention.”
The lawyer also said that the Karabük University rectorship held a meeting with the representatives of foreign students and threatened them with mobbing and deportation if they speak up against Dinabongho's death.
“There is pressure against Gabonese students and foreign students for them not to speak about Dinabongho's death for the (image of) the country not to be tarnished. I have personally witnessed this. During the meeting with the foreign national students’ leaders, they (the university management) said: ‘Here is Turkey; you will either live in line with Turkish customs or go. We will deport students who do not abide by our rules. We will deport those speaking up about Dinabongho's death.' The university’s stance here is not to protect the students; their concern is about the university getting damaged from the news.”
He said that there are 12,000 foreign national students attending Karabük University, 6,000 of whom are from Africa.
He recalled that Turkish authorities have sent Dinabongho's funeral to Istanbul without notifying anyone, including the Gabonese Embassy in Ankara or family. “International legal rules are being ignored. The funerals of the foreigners that have lost their lives in Turkey need to be notified to the embassies. Her (Dinabongho's) family is coming to Turkey this week. We will decide on whether to take the funeral or not, depending on the events.”
(English version by Didem Atakan)