Fadıl Şenyaşar was released from prison after six years and four months of imprisonment. On Friday evening, many people, including his mother Emine Şenyaşar and his brother, the DEM member of parliament Ferit Şenyaşar, were waiting outside the gates of the T-type prison no. 2 in Amed (tr. Diyarbakir). Emine Şenyaşar, who had fought for justice for years after the bloody lynching in the Suruç district of Urfa, hugged her son for a very long time.

Ferit Şenyaşar, a member of parliament for the DEM Party, said after the welcoming speech: “We have been waiting for this moment for six years and four months. If there were an independent judiciary, my brother would not have been imprisoned. My mother has been fighting all these years. Thanks to her struggle, my brother is now out. The judicial system was helpless against my mother's fight. My mother can rest now, but our legal struggle will continue. Thousands of people are unjustly imprisoned, and we are also fighting for political prisoners. My mother's struggle was a beacon of hope for all people who demand justice. Today we have received what we fought for.”

Fadıl Şenyaşar thanked ‘everyone who has been by our side to this day’. After that, the family made their way to Suruç, where Fadıl Şenyaşar will be under house arrest by court order. The trial will continue on 21 February 2025.

Background

On 14 June 2018, ten days before the parliamentary elections in Turkey, AKP MP Ibrahim Halil Yıldız, accompanied by relatives and bodyguards, visited the family business of the Şenyaşar family in Suruç. After a discussion about votes in the election, a verbal altercation broke out, which ended in a shootout. Security cameras captured the moment that Yıldız's companions, armed with knives, sticks, pistols and long firearms, attacked the shop owners. Brothers Celal and Adil Şenyaşar, as well as Mehmet Şah Yıldız, one of the attackers, collapsed covered in blood from stab wounds and gunshot wounds. Ferit and Fadıl Şenyaşar were also injured. The bloodbath continued in the various hospitals where the injured had been taken. In the end, four people were dead: the father of the family, Hacı Esvet Şenyaşar, his sons Celal and Adil Şenyaşar, and the attacker, Mehmet Şah Yıldız.

Fadıl Şenyaşar was sentenced to 37 years in prison for murder and attempted murder, although there are video recordings showing that he was beaten by five attackers, while Mehmet Şah Yıldız was hit by a bullet coming from a different direction – presumably from his brother's gun. Of the attackers, only Enver Yıldız was convicted of murder. Initially, he was sentenced to life imprisonment, but the sentence was later reduced to 18 years. The court considered it a mitigating circumstance that the crime had been committed spontaneously in the course of an escalating argument. The defence of the Şenyaşars, on the other hand, is convinced that it was a planned attack. Three of the attackers who had been imprisoned were also released yesterday and placed under house arrest.

Emine and Ferit Şenyaşar have been demanding justice for years in front of the courthouse in Urfa and later in front of the Ministry of Justice in Ankara. Both have been detained and charged multiple times, including for insulting the president. Their fight for justice has been supported by a wide range of people and organisations, including the medical peace organisation IPPNW.