On January 9, 2013, PKK founding member Sakine Cansız, KNK Paris representative Fidan Doğan and Kurdish youth movement member Leyla Şaylemez were murdered with 3 bullets to their heads in Paris. The only arrested suspect in the case, hitman Ömer Güney, died on December 17, 2016 under suspicious condiions. According to the suspect’s lawyers, Güney died of a lung infection. It was also said that the suspect had a brain condition, but there were no statements up to date that his health was getting worse. There is no official statement on the cause of death yet. But this death happened just weeks before the trial was scheduled to start. The trial was supposed to start on January 23 and continue until February 24.

The families’ lawyer Antoine Comte spoke to website Orient XXI and said: “Ömer Güney’s death benefits all parties except us. It serves the interests of the Turkish and French states, but not ours.”

Comte pointed out that: “There are serious elements in the casefile that show the Turkish state as the party to give the order. Wherever these people are, they should answer to French justice. We have the names of those involved in the incident. The French prosecution clearly accused the Turkish intelligence services. It was the first time that a state was shown as a murder suspect in a political murder.”

Comte added: “Yes, Ömer Güney is dead. But this needs to be understood: There are accomplices and those who ordered the murder on a political level in the casefile.”

Lawyer Sylvie Boitel spoke on what needs to be done now, and said: “We will appeal so the investigation is launched again and a new investigating judge be appointed.”

Boitel said: “If the prosecutor objects, we will be the civilian party in the case so that an investigating judge can be appointed automatically. A new investigating judge has to be appointed in order for us to continue the case at the level of those who ordered the murders.”