Petition against Mazlum İçli’s life sentence

The Turkish court sentenced Mazlum Içli to 124 years in prison for killing 4 people during the so-called Kobani protests in Diyarbakir on 6-8 October 2014. Among those he allegedly killed was Yasin Börü, who was associated with the Islamist party Hüda-Par, an ally of the AKP. The Human Rights Association (IHD) will launch a petition against Mazlum İçli’s aggravated life sentence on charges of ” disrupting the integrity of the country” and ” killing 4 people”.

Life imprisonment without evidence

Içli, who was charged with murder during the Kobani protests in Diyarbakir on 6-8 October 2014, has always maintained that he was not in Diyarbakir on the evening of 7 October, the night of the murder, and that he was playing music with his brother and father in Kulp district, 140 kilometers from the scene of the crime. Technical evidence such as videos, data from his mobile phone and the testimony of the taxi driver who took them to Kulp and back to Diyarbakir the next day, as well as the testimony of the groom of the wedding party that he was one of the musicians at Mazlum’s wedding, made it clear that İçli was innocent. The sentencing of the young Kurdish man to aggravated life imprisonment for murder, despite ample evidence that he was nowhere near the crime scene, sparked outrage. At the age of 14, İçli was imprisoned without evidence and today he is 23 years old.

Campaign for Mazlum Içli

The IHD has announced that it is in the process of launching a campaign against the injustice. Speaking to the Mesopotamia News Agency, IHD co-chair Eren Keskin said the following about the campaign: “First we will start a petition campaign, then this campaign will continue with joint decisions. Within this campaign, people who want a democratic solution for the Kurdish question, people who want peace regardless of their views, actors, football players, lawyers, people who influence the society should take part in this campaign. I will visit Mazlum soon and his demands will be more important for us than anything else.”

Crackdown on Kurds

Mazlum İçli’s conviction was part of a wider operation by the Turkish authorities. The 6-8 October trials also convicted several prominent Kurdish politicians, including former HDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş, who is currently in prison. During the ISIS siege of Kobani in northern and eastern Syria, Demirtaş had called on Kurds to take to the streets to show their support for the YPG in Kobani and to demand that Turkey end its support for ISIS. However, Demirtaş has never called for violence in his speeches. The HDP has repeatedly submitted parliamentary proposals for a real investigation into the events of October 2014, but the AKP-MHP coalition has always voted against such a parliamentary inquiry.