All Three Defendants Acquitted in Trans Murder

Source: “Trans cinayetinde 3 sanık da beraat etti,” (“All three defendants acquitted in trans murder,”) DHA, 13 December 2013, http://www.evrensel.net/haber/74020/trans-cinayetinde-3-sanik-da-beraat-etti.html

The three defendants who were being tried, without arrest, for the murder of trans individual Ece Pulat were acquitted due to a lack of evidence. Ece Pulat was found in İzmir’s Aliağa district having been decapitated and left on vacant land in March 2011.

On March 21, 2011, workers laying the  underground telephone lines near the iron and steel plants region of the Aliağa – Yeni Foça highway found a body in a vacated land. The Gendermarie’s investigation revealed that the body, with nail polish on fingernails, was decapitated and legs detached. The investigation also found that the body belonged to 30 years old Ece Pulat, with her name recorded on official documents as Şerif Remzi Pulat. Ece Pulat lived with three roommates in Alsancak and was found decapitated 25 days after she received a phone call and left her home. According to the Izmir Forensic Medicine Institution’s autopsy, her throat was cut with a knife.

Subsequently, charges were filed in the Izmir Second Criminal Court for Aggravated Crimes against three defendants for aggravated life imprisonment for the crime of “murder by torture or with monstrous emotions.” During the trial process, two defendants were freed after being detained for 14 months. C.A., who was convicted in another case, Ö.T. and V.D., who were being tried without arrest, their lawyer Murat Seçgin, and the victim’s mother Keziban Özdemir and her father Hasan Pulat attended the last hearing at the 2nd High Criminal Court. The defendants pleaded not guilty. Ece Pulat’s father demanded the conviction of the defendants.

The panel of judges decided to acquit all three defendants on the basis that there was a lack of definitive evidence proving that they murdered Ece Pulat. Pulat’s relatives stated that they will appeal the decision.

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