A trial has been going on in Gürpınar, in the province of Van, since 2017, revealing once again how the law is arbitrarily applied against Kurds in the region.

Two villagers were acquitted, after being imprisoned for a year on the basis of a fake tip-off. The court eventually found the evidence was fabricated.

What happened in the Gürpınar reveals what kind of enemy law was applied against Kurds. Cumhur and Surri Alıcı were called to the police station and from then on they entered a nightmare.

Arrested because of the police dog reaction

On 14 May 2017, on the road to Taşlıca hamlet in Gürpınar, a mine laid by HPG members exploded and the village guards in the passing vehicle were seriously injured. After the incident, the Gendarmerie Units affiliated to the Kırkgeçit Police Station raided the houses of villagers Feyzi Abut and Yüksel Abut. The Gendarmerie, who could not find the Abut brothers in the raid, summoned brothers Surri and Cumhur – who were also living in the hamlet - to the police station on the grounds that they had information about the incident. Surri and Cumhur Alici were taken into custody after entering the police station. They were arrested and sent to prison on the grounds that "members of an illegal organization stayed in their homes and dogs smelled bombs and explosives on people".

Surri and Cumhur Alici were later released pending trial. In the ongoing trial at the Van 4th Heavy Penal Court, it was understood that the information and bomb reports about the villagers were fake. The soldier responsible for the dog that allegedly smelled explosive changed his declaration and said that in fact the dog had no reaction. In addition, the soldiers who signed the testimony said they did not know why such testimony was written.

Fake tip-offs

In addition to the fake bomb report, there was also a fake report of the incident. In the report prepared by the soldiers affiliated to Kırkgeçit Police Station on 15.05.2017, it was stated that "Following the detonation of a mine/IED on the road near Gürpınar Oğuldamı Mahallesi Taşlıça hamlet, a person who did not want to give his identity information, gave the names of Feyzi Abut, Yüksel Abut, Cumhur Alici and that those people had stayed in Surri Alici’s house, where possibly the explosive devices had. were staying in their houses and that they might have prepared explosive devices had been prepared.

A difference in the time in which the villagers were taken into custody after the alleged tip-off also contradicted the information given by soldiers.

Sinan Özaras, the lawyer of Surri and Cumhur Alici, said that after the explosion in 2017, the villagers were arrested for allegedly carrying out an action to kill but that in fact, fake secret witnesses and fake tip-offs were fabricated.

Lawyer Özaras continued: "The result of this fake accusation was that my clients have been kept in prison for one year. Eventually, a verdict of acquittal was handed out but our legal fight over the persecution of people using fabricated evidence will continue."