Defendant E.Ö., whose father is in custody, Orhan Ö, during a hearing at the Balikesir 1st High Criminal Court, via the Audiovisual Information System (SEGBİS) from the prison where he is being held. Also in attendance were victim Ata Emre Akman’s father, retired Colonel Eroglu Akman, his mother Zuhar Akman, and party lawyers.
The court took a break and then continued questioning of witnesses.
Defendant Orhan O. Witness Sultan D., who lived with him in a religious marriage until 2013, claimed that the individual was trying to harm him.
Sultan D stated that he had taken care of E.Ö, who murdered Ata Emre Akman, for a time when he was a child, and claimed that E.Ö could be older than 17 years old.
Witness Pinar A. and Orhan Ö, who were in the same environment as Sultan D, with whom he previously lived, claimed that he had stated that he was going to have an incident in front of his house and that it would become known throughout Balikesir.
Eyewitness Betul K, Sultan D’s upstairs neighbour who delivered a pizza ordered by Ata Emre Akman, said he heard a voice calling for “help” a short time later.
Kaplan said she saw Akman collapse off his motorcycle when she looked out her window, adding, “I called 911 and went downstairs. My sister, who was medical staff, tried to intervene, but he had stopped having a pulse before the ambulance arrived,” she said.
Many witnesses testified at the hearing, including relatives and friends of the defendants.
When the victim’s father and mother spoke, people in the hall cried.
In his opinion on the merits, the prosecutor said that E.Ö had received an aggravated life sentence for “premeditated murder with heinous feelings or with the infliction of torture” and a maximum sentence of one year in prison for the following offences: He called for punishment of “possession or possession of unauthorised weapons, knives and ammunition.”
The prosecution asked for an aggravated life sentence for the father, Orhan Oh, for “instigating murder with premeditation and monstrous passion, or inflicting torture,” and for the two defendants to be given the upper limit, rather than the lower limit.
Allowed to take the floor again, E.Ö denied the allegations that he had planned and committed the murder, saying: “I committed such acts with the help of alcohol I had consumed and my ignorance. There is no way my father had instigated me…” he said.
Orhan O said he had never used others in any of his previous crimes, and said, “When I found out about this, my family cried. If I were to do it, I would give my child a gun and say, ‘Go kill him. I have nothing to do with this case.'” He defended himself.
Well-wishers in the hall could not contain their tears as statements were made by Ata Emre Akman’s mother and father.
His mother, Zuhar Akman, said she could not accept such a method of execution, adding: “I think we can draw some conclusions from this case. I want what they call a ‘child in crime’ to be tried and punished as an adult,” he said.
The court rejected the request of the Akman family’s lawyers to determine E.Ö’s bone age on the day of the incident, due to the existence of a birth certificate, and decided to give the defendant’s lawyers time to prepare a defense to the arguments on the merits. It continued the defendant’s detention and postponed the hearing to July 12.
what happened?
Ata Emre Akman (20), a student of the Tourism Guidance Department of the Faculty of Tourism at Balikesir University, headed to Emir Street in Karaoglan district, Kalesi province, on May 11 to deliver an ordered pizza to the company where he had started working.
After giving him the pizza, E.Ö approached Akman as he walked to his motorbike parked on the street and attacked the university student with a knife. Akman died at the scene and E.Ö fled. He was arrested by police and later arrested by a judge.
The indictment, prepared by the Balikesir Chief Prosecutor’s Office, seeks an aggravated life sentence for murder suspect E.Ö for “committing premeditated murder or torture with heinous feelings.”
Since the defendant is under 18 years of age, “any person who at the time of the act is 15 years of age or older but not over 18 years of age shall be punished with imprisonment for 14 to 20 years, if an aggravated crime requires, life imprisonment, or 9 to 12 years, if imprisonment for life is required.” A request is made for the implementation of the article.
The indictment seeks an aggravated life sentence for Orhan O for “having planned the murder with monstrous passion and abetting the murder by inflicting torture,” as well as an increased sentence for abetting the crime.
