Turkish appeals court overturns acquittal of police officer for murder of five-year-old child by armored vehicle

Duvar English

The Diyarbakır Regional Court of Justice 10th Criminal Chamber, an appeals court, has overturned the acquittal sentence of police officer İdris Aksoy who was driving the armored vehicle that hit and killed five-year-old Efe Tektekin back in 2019 in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır.

The court overturned the lower court's decision on the grounds that there were procedural deficiencies.

The court said the act of killing with an armored vehicle was committed while the officer was on public duty, and requested permission to investigate him in order to conduct the trial further as the crimes committed while on public duty requires permission to investigate, according to reporting by the non-profit Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA).

The court said the lower court did not ask the relevant institution for permission to investigate the defendant and it was against the law to continue the trial without asking and receiving the permission.

The case concerns Efe Tektekin, who lost his life after being hit by an armored vehicle belonging to the police on Sept. 11, 2019. The expert's report claimed that the police officer who had crushed the vehicle into the boy was the “contributory negligent party,” whereas Efe was the “primary.”

In recent years, several people in Turkey's southeast have been hit and killed by armored vehicles, many of them young people and children. The majority-Kurdish region was the site of an intense military crackdown after the breakdown of peace talks between the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the government. It has remained heavily militarized since.