Turkish prosecutor seeks for acquittal of defendants in JİTEM case

Duvar English

In his final sentencing opinion ("mütalaa"), a Turkish prosecutor has asked for the acquittal of all 19 defendants, including former Interior Minister Mehmet Ağar, who are on trial on charges of being a member of JİTEM, a clandestine state security unit responsible for dozens of unsolved murders and disappearances in the 1990s.

An Ankara court had previously acquitted the defendants of the charges of “membership in an armed organization established for the purpose of committing a crime” and “participation in manslaughter” in the “Ankara JİTEM Case” concerning the disappearance and execution of 19 people in the 1990s.

The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office prepared an indictment on Dec. 20, 2013, and an Ankara court acquitted all of the defendants in 2019. Nonetheless, a higher court overturned the verdict in 2021 and the case re-opened.

In 2015, former National Intelligence Organization (MİT) executive Mehmet Eymür presented the court a list of 29 executions, which he said was given to him in the 1990s. 

One of the defendants is Mahmut Yıldırım, who has been a fugitive for years, and he came to the agenda last week after his poster waved in the tribunes in the match between Amedspor and Bursaspor. Yıldırım, who was a member of JİTEM, played a role in the enforced disappearances of thousands of people in the 1990s.

The JİTEM attacked many Kurdish and leftist political figures in the 1990s, and relatives of those who were subjected to enforced disappearances are still looking for their relatives.