Child Death Probe Team Investigated

The prosecution is also investigation the Batman Cagdas and Batman Postasi newspapers that printed the team's findings.

Mizgin Ozbek was killed in gunfire at a security roadblock in the province while in a car and her mother was wounded in the incident. While security forces said they opened fire on two armed passengers in the car, who the family had picked up as hitchhikers, a human rights probe into the incident concluded on the use of excessive force disregarding human rights.

All five members of the Association for Human Rights and Solidarity with the Oppressed (MAZLUMDER) who conducted the investigation into Ozbek's killing are now being investigated for violation of three laws after the Batman Gendarme Provincial Command filed criminal complaints.

The group may be charged under penal code article 285 for "violating the secrecy of an investigation, article 288 for "influencing a fair trial" and controversial article 301/2 for "denigrating the military or police establishment".

Ozevin: This is repression

Batman Bar Association Chairman and attorney Sedat Ozevin who was part of the five investigating the child's death said the prosecution's probe was an attempt to repress human rights activists and to prevent them

"Is articles 285 and 288 of the penal code are interpreted this way" he warned, "no rights activist can make any statements on any violation of rights."

"Rights violations such as extra judicial killings and torture under detention are incidents that need to be investigated under law. When it is seen this way a conclusion can be reached that rights activists should not speak about such incidents or issue statements which is a very dangerous situation," Ozevin said.

The Bar Association Chairman noted that because of a prosecutor's decision of secrecy the file on the incident could not be examined by the team, adding that he could not make out how they could have violated any secrecy having not even seen the file.

"An investigation should not have been launched" he said. "We expect it to result with a dismissal of proceedings. What the prosecutor's office should do is to investigate whether excessive force was used in the death of Mizgin".

Ozevin noted that as part of the enquiry members of the investigation team had been interviewed by the prosecutor.

"Right to life may have been violated"

The delegation investigating Mizgin's death issued a report containing its findings which said her right to life might have been neglected in the incident while two suspects killed in the same care could have likely been apprehended alive by security forces.

The fact-finding mission announced that all findings suggested that the incident, which left Mizgin dead and her mother Saniye, and elder brother Hadi wounded, showed necessary care was not shown in protecting their right to life.

According to the report prepared by the delegation many of the findings contradict the initial official statement that a clash took place in a rural zone of the Taslidere village of Batman's Kozluk district when two suspects opened fire on security forces at a roadblock on the road with long range weapons.

During the clash, the official statement had claimed, Mizgin Ozbek who was in a car was killed and her other Samiye was wounded and later taken to the Batman State Hospital. The two "terrorists" meanwhile, were killed and their weapons alongside 2 kilogram of C-4 explosives were confiscated.

Fact-finding Report

The fact-finding report into Mizgin's death warned that the recently passed Anti-Terror Law article authorizing security forces to open fire on anyone without warning them to stop will lead to disproportional use of force and bring together with it abuse of authority.

It called on authorities to investigate whether there was a neglect or carelessness in the killing of an 11-year-old child and finalize this investigation as soon as possible and listed its own findings as:

* Investigation at the scene of incident showed that because the scene itself was a very narrow and closed stream, because there was no possibility for those involved to have escaped, there is a strong possibility that they could have been apprehended alive.

* At the scene of incident a large number of foreign origin empty cartridges belonging to long-range weapons were found. In official statements that appeared in the press, it was claimed the "militants had thrown bombs". Nothing was found to support this.

* It is understood from his own statements that Hadi Ozbek who was driving the car during the incident was subjected to verbal and physical insults and torture.

* The dragging of Mizgin's dead body after the clash by holding her by the hair in front of her older brother has deeply effected her brother and when he was telling our delegation about the incident, he was having difficulties because he cried.

* According to witness Hadi Ozbek's statements, the bodies of the two armed organization members who were killed were dragged for a while before they were sprayed with bullets again. Batman Governor Haluk Imga, on the other hand, said officials told him such an incident never took place. This issue will be understood more clearly when the post-mortem report is examined.

* A confiscation order issued for the vehicle used by Hadi Ozbek had prevented any examination of the vehicle. According to information received from the outside, the Kozluk Public Prosecutor's Office has not opened a separate investigation into the killing of Mizgin Ozbek but preferred instead to investigate her death in the capacity of the current investigation. (KO/TK/II/YE)