Mehmet İlbasan
person- Image
- Sex
- Male
- Civil status
- Married
- Occupation
- Shepherd
- Dependants
- 5
- Event description
Per indictment bill prepared by the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, Mustafa Aydın and his family were living in the Serav hamlet of Şırnak’s Bozalan village. In August 1994, the gendarmerie under the command of the district gendarmerie commander took Mustafa Aydın and his uncle’s son into custody without any explanation.
Around the same time Mehmet İlbasan, who was living in the İdil county of Şırnak, had sold his livestock to a man with tribe connections but was unable to get his money. One day, he left home to meet the debtor at the latter’s house and disappeared.
Sometime after the disappearance of Mustafa Aydın and his cousin, their family learned through village guards that Mustafa Aydın and Mehmet İlbasan were tied to a tree and were being tortured. Shortly later, a village guard brought the dead body of Mustafa Aydın to the family; the cousin who returned home through his own means corroborated the information received by the family and claimed that he had been tortured by two former-PKK militants-turned-JİTEM members.
İlbasan’s family found out that, instead of paying the money, the debtor had reported Mehmet İlbasan to the security forces, who took him away. His body was not discovered.
Fearing retaliation, the families did not take legal action.
In 2009, following criminal complaints filed by the families, the murder of Musafa Aydın was included in the investigation led by the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office investigating the extra-judicial executions carried out by a gang of ex-PKK members, soldiers and village guards formed by the Cizre District Gendarmerie Commander. Mehmet İlbasan was excluded, as his body had not been recovered.
The defendants, who were charged with multiple life sentences, were all acquitted in November 2015 due to lack of evidence. The case is under review by the Court of Cassation.
- Geolocation
Latitude: 37.33234600000001
Longitude: 42.185474000000006
- Geolocation
- City
- Şırnak
- District
- Cizre
- Date of disappearance
- Aug 1, 1994
- Year of disappearance
- 1994
- Age at the time of disappearance
- Yaş:21Ay:6Gün:12
- Status of the victim
- Still missing
- Type of source material
- Decision and correspondences of prosecutor
- Interview with family member (audio and video records)
- Decision by the prosecution office
- Investigation continues
- Summary of the legal proceedings
Per indictment bill prepared by the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, the dead body of Mustafa Aydın, who disappeared in Cizre, Şırnak in 1994 after being taken into custody by the gendarmerie, was found whereas the dead body of Mehmet İlbasan, who had göne missing around the same time in Şırnak after leaving home to collect money from a debtor, was never located.
Through their own efforts, the families obtained information from witnesses, who told them that both men had been tortured and executed by ex-PKK members working for the district gendarmerie commander.
Fearing retaliation, the families did not take action until 2009, when they applied to the Cizre Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office. The file (2009/442) was merged with the investigation (2009/430) led by the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office investigating the extra-judicial executions carried out by a gang of ex-PKK members, soldiers and village guards formed by the Cizre District Gendarmerie Commander. Mehmet İlbasan was excluded, as his body had not been recovered.
The defendants, who were charged with multiple life sentences, were all acquitted in November 2015 due to lack of evidence. The case is under review by the Court of Cassation.