SADİYE ESER

Riha - The sit-in protest held in front of the Urfa Courthouse by Emine Şenyaşar, whose husband and two sons were murdered in the attack carried out by the relatives and bodyguards of AKP Urfa MP İbrahim Halil Yıldız in the Suruç district of Urfa province on June 14, 2018, and her son Ferit Şenyaşar continues.

So far, 15 separate investigations have been launched against Emine Şenyaşar who has been seeking justice for 18 months, on charges of “insulting” AKP MP İbrahim Yıldız or Turkey’s Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu. After five investigations were completed, five lawsuits have been filed against her. The first hearing of one of these lawsuits will be held today.

She will stand trial

Today, Emine Şenyaşar will stand trial on the charge of “insulting a public official” for calling Turkey’s Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu “Soysuz (English: corrupt, ignoble or classless) on June 02, 2021, the 85th day of her sit-in protest in front of the Urfa Courthouse. Previously, this lawsuit was merged with the lawsuit filed by the Urfa 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance against Emine Şenyaşar on charges of “insulting” AKP MP İbrahim Yıldız.

“Who killed my children?”

NuJINHA spoke to Emine Şenyaşar. Stating that she has been seeking justice for two years, she said, “The persecution against us continues. They intensify the persecution against us by filing lawsuits. They should stop persecuting us. Enough is enough. Who killed my children? Who attacked the wounded in the ambulance? Our members were killed but we are held in prison (Her son Fadıl Şenyaşar has been held in prison for about four years) and stand trial. My son should be released. There is no government, no state. Lawsuits should not be filed against me. What kind of government and state is this? They should watch the records of security cameras of the hospital in order to see how they persecute us. We know everyone who stands with us. We thank those who stand with us. They tore my heart out by killing my children. The judges and prosecutors should tell who killed my children.”

Five separate lawsuits

On the 157th day of the sit-in protest (12.08.2021), police attacked Emine Şenyaşar and Ferit Şenyaşar for hanging a banner on a barrier of the courthouse. On September 7, 2021, the AKP MP İbrahim Halil Yıldız's lawyer filed a criminal complaint against Emine Şenyaşar alleging “insulting” and “slandering” İbrahim Yıldız for her words during the attack. The lawyer demanded a criminal case to be initiated against Emine Şenyaşar. On March 2, 2022, an indictment was prepared against Emine Şenyaşar as part of the investigation launched by the Urfa Chief Public Prosecutor's Office.

The indictment was accepted by the Urfa 4th Criminal Court of First Instance. The indictment demands prison sentence against Emine Şenyaşar on charges of “insulting a public official”. On May 17, 2022, the first hearing of the trial was held and Emine Şenyaşar was sentenced to pay a judicial fine. So far, 15 separate investigations have been launched against Emine Şenyaşar over similar charges while five separate investigations have been launched against her son Ferit Şenyaşar over similar charges.

What had happened?

On June 14, 2018, AKP MP İbrahim Halil Yıldız visited shopkeepers in the Suruç district of Urfa province along with his relatives and bodyguards and they attacked the Şenyaşar family’s shop. 41-year-old Celal Şenyaşar and 36-year-old Adil Şenyaşar were seriously wounded in the attack while Mehmet Şenyaşar, Fadıl Şenyaşar and Ferit Şenyaşar were slightly injured. Emine Şenyaşar directly went to the Suruç State Hospital as soon as she heard the attack on her family members. Her husband Hacı Esvet Şenyaşar and two sons were lynched and murdered at the Suruç State Hospital in front of her.

While they were lynched and murdered at the hospital, former Urfa Governor Abdullah Erin, Suruç District Governor Tarık Açıkgöz and Ahmet Eşref Fakıbaba, former Minister of Food, Agriculture and Livestock, were in the hospital yard. The cameras inside the hospital were sabotaged in order to avoid a record of the incident.

On April 22, 2022, four years after the massacre, 10 people, including AKP MP İbrahim Halil Yıldız’s father Osman Yıldız, his brother Celal Yıldız, his nephews Osman Şah, Hüseyin Yıldız and his advisor Mustafa Amaç, were taken into custody. Celal Yıldız, İbrahim Şimşek, Mikail Şimşek and Müslüm Yıldız were sent to prison on charges of “intentionally killing”, “deliberately injuring” the members of the Şenyaşar family.