4 December 2024

On 26 April 2022 in Elazığ, journalist Ardıl Batmaz was assaulted while covering an event attended by then-Minister of Interior Süleyman Soylu and Minister of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Murat Kurum. Batmaz secured a conviction against the bodyguard police officer of Elazığ Mayor Şahin Şerifoğulları. According to MLSA, the officer was sentenced to a 200-day judicial fine for “intentional injury”; the sentence was suspended under the “deferment of the announcement of the verdict” (HAGB) provision. Before the verdict, Batmaz’s lawyer Kader Arat stated that witness Hasan Celal Kaya was one of the assailants and requested that a criminal complaint be filed against him and that the resulting indictment be merged with the current case. Arat also argued that taking the witness’s statement in the absence of the complainant violated her client’s right to a fair trial. The judge rejected the request, reasoning that the complainant could file a separate complaint, that there was no legal or factual connection between the potential case and the current one, and that merging them would prolong the proceedings.