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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Three people from the Kurdish family whose seven members were massacred in July were detained by Turkish police during the trial of the mass killing on Friday, family lawyer told Rudaw English on Saturday.
Seven members of the Dedeoglu family, who lived in the Meram district of Konya, were killed in late July. Their house was subsequently set on fire. The family had been injured on May 12 in an attack by nationalist Turks who were their neighbors.
In CCTV footage broadcast by Turkish media at the time main suspect, Mehmut Altun, can be seen brandishing a weapon at the family’s home on the night of the murders. He and another person have been detained.
During the trial of the mass killing on Friday, the defendants “lied” about Yasar Dedeoglu, the deceased head of the family by claiming that he was carrying a gun when the crime took place. This angered Cetin, son of the murdered man, who entered a verbal fight with them, Abdurrahman Karabulut, lawyer of the Kurdish family, told Rudaw Englilsh on Saturday.
Karabulut said the judge did not give any order to the police to intervene but they detained three from the Kurdish family. “They were severely injured. They claim that the police cursed them in the worst way.”
The trial of the massacre has been adjourned to February 11 but the three Kurdish men are being tried on Saturday for what happened on Friday. They have not been released as of Saturday noon.
“Do not be surprised if my clients, who will soon be transferred to the courthouse, are arrested,” Karabulut said in a tweet earlier on Saturday. “The murderers are protected, my aggrieved clients are both battered and at risk of being arrested.”
Cetin, who has lost his parents and all siblings in the massacre, told Rudaw English on Saturday that they are being treated “unfairly” by the state and court.
Hisyar Ozalp, another lawyer of the Kurdish family, told Rudaw’s Hevidar Zana on Friday that the main defendant was speaking in a way to the Kurdish family that “showed he was teasing the members of the massacred family.”
He added that the Kurdish family was attacked by the other family “physically and verbally.”
“The criminals and their lawyers seem to take their power from the government,” claimed Ozalp.
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