Kemal Kurkut died on 21 March 2017 after being shot by police officers at a checkpoint as he arrived to attend the Newroz celebrations in Diyarbakır. In a statement issued on the same day, the Diyarbakır Governor’s Office announced that Kurkut was carrying a knife and that police had intervened because they suspected that he “could be a suicide attacker.”

Photographs taken at the scene by journalist Abdurrahman Gök showed Kurkut, shirtless and holding a knife, arguing with police officers at the checkpoint. The photographs also showed some officers firing warning shots into the air and one of the police officers aiming his weapon at Kurkut.

As part of the investigation, statements were taken from two police officers. In the indictment dated 2 October 2017, a decision of non-prosecution was issued concerning police officer Onur Mete in relation to the offence of killing with eventual intent . A case was brought against police officer Yakup Şenocak, seeking a life sentence for killing with eventual intent. Şenocak was reinstated after being suspended from duty for three months.

The first hearing in the case before the Diyarbakır 7th High Criminal Court was held on 14 December 2017. During the proceedings, different expert reports were submitted concerning the manner in which Kurkut had been shot. In a report prepared by the Forensic Medicine Institute before the hearing on 20 December 2018, it was stated that Kurkut had died after being struck by a bullet that had ricocheted off the ground and that the bullet core was unsuitable for ballistic examination. Lawyers representing the complainant parties objected to the report and requested that another institution prepare a report. The court subsequently ordered an examination by the National Criminal Bureau.

At the hearing on 28 February 2019, a report prepared by the National Criminal Bureau was submitted to the case file. Contrary to the findings of the Forensic Medicine Institute, the report concluded that Kurkut had been shot by a directly aimed shot fired by Yakup Şenocak. The court requested a supplementary report on the grounds that the report contained an incomplete assessment.

At the hearing on 30 May 2019, the National Criminal Bureau’s second report was submitted to the case file. This time, the report stated that Kurkut had been shot not by a direct shot but after being struck by a bullet that had ricocheted off the ground. The court therefore decided to obtain a new report from the General Assembly of the Forensic Medicine Institute in order to resolve the discrepancy between the reports in the case file.

At the hearing on 24 October 2019, the requests by lawyers representing the complainant parties for Yakup Şenocak to be detained were rejected. As the report awaited from the General Assembly of the Forensic Medicine Institute had not yet been submitted, no further action was taken in the case.

At the hearing on 14 January 2020, the report prepared by the Forensic Medicine Institute approximately seven months later was submitted to the court. The report reiterated the conclusion that Kurkut had died after being struck by a bullet that had ricocheted off the ground. The complainant’s lawyer stated that they objected to this conclusion and reserved their right to have reports obtained from other forensic medicine experts.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the hearing scheduled for 24 March 2020 was postponed until 16 June 2020. At this hearing, the public prosecutor submitted the prosecutor’s final opinion. The prosecution accepted that Kurkut had died after being struck by a bullet that had ricocheted off the ground and requested that defendant Yakup Şenocak be sentenced to between 3 and 9 years’ imprisonment for causing death by conscious negligence.

The prosecutor’s final opinion stated that Kurkut had acted randomly without making any attempt to attack anyone and that, given the number of police officers present at the scene, he could have been subdued without opening fire. It further stated that, given the defendant’s professional knowledge and experience, he should have foreseen that a shot fired toward the ground could ricochet and hit Kurkut. Nevertheless, it concluded that he had acted beyond the limits of his authority to use a firearm.

At the hearing on 22 September 2020, the court decided to examine the case for judgment because the composition of the trial bench had changed.

At the judgment hearing on 17 November 2020, the Diyarbakır 7th High Criminal Court acquitted Yakup Şenocak, who had been tried for killing with eventual intent (dolus eventualis), on the grounds that there was insufficient evidence conclusively establishing that the offence had been committed by the defendant.

Following an appeal against the judgment, the 1st Criminal Chamber of the Diyarbakır Regional Court of Appeal overturned the judgment on 13 March 2022. The Chamber took into account the provision concerning the performance of a legal duty under Article 24/1 of the Turkish Penal Code, as well as the authority to use force and firearms under Article 16 of the Law on the Duties and Powers of the Police. It noted that the court of first instance had acquitted the defendant based on the reports of the Forensic Medicine Institute and the National Criminal Bureau, but had failed to assess whether the police officer had been legally authorized to use a firearm in the circumstances. According to the Regional Court of Appeal, since the act attributed to Yakup Şenocak was not unlawful, the appropriate ruling should have been that there were no grounds for imposing a criminal penalty, rather than an acquittal. The case was therefore sent back to the Diyarbakır 7th High Criminal Court.

The first hearing following the reversal was held on 22 March 2022. An expert legal opinion prepared by Dr. Timuçin Köprülü, a lecturer at Atılım University Faculty of Law and an expert in criminal law, on behalf of the Kurkut family’s lawyers was submitted to the case file. The opinion addressed the Regional Court of Appeal’s reversal decision, whether the police had been legally authorized to use force and firearms in the circumstances, and the deficiencies in the investigation and prosecution. The court also ordered that the disciplinary investigation file concerning the defendant, held by the Diyarbakır Provincial Disciplinary Board of the Governor’s Office, be obtained and that witnesses who had given statements during that investigation be heard.

At the hearing on 15 September 2022, it was reflected in the case file that the Gaziantep Regional Administrative Court had overturned the 24-month suspension of advancement penalty imposed on Yakup Şenocak. The requests by lawyers representing the complainant parties to identify the police officers who had been present at the scene and whose identities appeared only as service numbers in the official records, to hear them as witnesses, and to detain the defendant were rejected. The case was then sent to the prosecutor’s office for preparation of the prosecutor’s final opinion.

At the judgment hearing on 17 January 2023, the public prosecutor stated that the Regional Court of Appeal’s reversal decision should be followed and requested that the court rule that there were no grounds for imposing a criminal penalty on the defendant.

The Diyarbakır 7th High Criminal Court concluded that Yakup Şenocak had acted, at the time of the incident, within the scope of the provisions of the Law on the Duties and Powers of the Police and the Turkish Penal Code concerning the use of firearms and the performance of a legal duty. The court therefore ruled that there were no grounds for imposing a criminal penalty on the defendant.