Turkish policemen get away with killing two boys in Şırnak after court finds fining them sufficient

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Two police officers got away with killing two boys in the Silopi district of the Kurdish-majority southeastern province of Şırnak after an appeals court ruled that fining them would be a sufficient sentence.

Two children, 6-year-old Furkan Yıldırım and 7-year-old Muhammed Yıldırım, were killed after an armored vehicle driven by a police officer without a proper driving license crashed into their house on May 3, 2017.

The trial of the killing was completed last year, with Cizre Second Heavy Penal Court sentencing the driver of the armored vehicle, Ömer Yeğit, to two years and one month in prison over "involuntary manslaughter," but then turned it into a monetary fine of 19,000 Turkish Liras.

It ruled for the acquittal of Murat Maden, who was Yeğit's superior at the time of the murder.

The lawyers then took the case to an appeals court, which ruled that the lower court's sentences are sufficient.

In its justified decision, the appeals court said that the ruling is not against the law and that there are no shortcomings in evidence or processes. It also rejected the lawyers' demand to try Yeğit over "eventual intent."

Rojhat Dilsiz, one of the lawyers, said that they will take the case to the Court of Cassation, noting that the cases that security forces are suspects end up with impunity.

Lawyers of Kurdish men thrown from helicopter apply to Turkey's Constitutional Court