New suspects in lawyer鈥檚 death identified by Forensic Architecture
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A Kurdish human rights lawyer shot during a press conference was most likely killed by Turkish police, a new investigation by Forensic Architecture concludes.
(FA), a research agency based at Goldsmith, University of London, took up the case of Tahir El莽i after Turkey鈥檚 state investigation into his death stalled.
Shortly before 11am on 28 November 2015, El莽i was killed by a single gunshot in the town of Diyarbak谋r, Turkey, during a press conference in the city鈥檚 historic district of Sur.
As chairman of the Diyarbak谋r Bar Association and a prominent human rights defender and peace activist, he had been speaking to the media to call for an end to ongoing conflict between Turkish security forces and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers鈥� Party (PKK).
El莽i鈥檚 press conference was interrupted when two members of the PKK鈥檚 鈥榶outh wing鈥� ran through the scene, moments after they had shot and killed two police officers nearby.
Police who had been at the press conference opened fire as the pair ran past, and over forty shots were fired. The only casualty was El莽i, who received a bullet to the back of the head.
It was not clear at the time of the incident whether the lethal shot had been fired by the PKK gunmen, or by the chasing police officers. The PKK gunmen were accused, but the police officers were not interviewed as suspects. The crime scene was not properly investigated, and potential evidence lost, according to the Diyarbak谋r Bar Association.
Commissioned by the Bar Association, FA has synchronised and arranged various pieces of audio-visual material capturing the incident and analysed each frame-by-frame. They have been able to narrow down the window of time within which El莽i was killed to less than eight seconds.
Their analysis also reduced the set of possible fatal shots from forty to just six. None of these were fired by the PKK gunmen. FA conclude that three police officers at the scene had a direct line of fire toward El莽i and any of those officers could have fired the fatal shots. Only one officer had an unobstructed view toward El莽i while discharging his weapon.
Following the shooting, El莽i was left unattended and without medical aid for ten minutes.
Professor Eyal Weizman, FA鈥檚 director, said: 鈥淏oth the killing of Tahir El莽i, a peace activist and a human rights defender, and the state鈥檚 apparent lack of willingness to investigate that killing demonstrate a disturbing disregard for human lives, and human rights. It has been left to international civil society to undertake a complete and independent investigation.
鈥淩elying only on evidence that is already available to the state, we have been able to narrow the focus of the question of who killed Tahir El莽i. Of course, our undertaking does not absolve the Turkish state of its responsibility to adequately investigate the circumstances of the death of its civilians.鈥�
On 14 December 2018, FA submitted their report to the public prosecutor in Turkey, alongside a list of demands from the Bar Association, and on 8 February 2019 have published their investigation鈥檚 results through a video and written report.
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Forensic Architecture is based in the Department of Visual Cultures. 糖心vlog免费B站 offers two optional modules engaging with the work of Forensic Architecture and the Centre for Research Architecture more broadly. These are open to final year students studying in all BA programmes across college, with 10 places ring-fenced for Visual Cultures students.
The Killing of Tahir Elçi