HDP MP Beştaş questions in parliament Turkish court’s reasons for dismissal of indictment in the missing and murder case of Syriac Chaldean couple Shmuni and Hurmuz Diril

ANKARA/MEHRE – Meral Danış-Beştaş, co-leader of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in the Turkish National Assembly, has raised the negligence and mistakes of police investigators and prosecutors in the case of the murdered Shmuni Diril and her missing husband Hurmuz Diril, reports Syriac newspaper Gazete Sabro. Meral Danış Beştaş has asked Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul for clarification and requested immediate sharing of information about the case with the Diril family lawyers. Danış-Beştaş submitted parliamentary questions to the Presidency of the National Assembly, asking the Minister of Justice for response.

The retired Syriac-Chaldean Diril couple moved back from Istanbul to their beloved home village of Mehre, southeastern Turkey, which they had to evacuate by military order in the 1990s. The couple disappeared on January 7, 2020, and aunt Shmuni Diril was found murdered nearby their village in March 2020.

“As is well known, this region is full of stories of disappearances and kidnappings. Besides these painful cases, the many cases of unsolved murder (‘Faili Meçhul’) cause intense suffering,” stated HDP MP Beştaş. “The perpetrators of many mass killings, social incidents and murders remain unknown and free, while the investigations into these tragic events end up on the dusty shelves of time.”

Also read: Turkish court rejects initial indictment in Diril case. Family lawyer says perpetrators are being protected

The fate of uncle Hurmuz Diril’s case has unfortunately entered a dangerous phase, warns Meral Danış Beştaş. The fact that an indictment was never been formally drawn up for 2 years, the fact that Hurmuz Diril has not yet been found yet, that Apro Diril, a relative and one of the suspects in the case, was arrested but also released several times, and the fact that the indictment was dismissed only after the legal deadline of the filing of the indictment to the court, revives well-known concerns.

“Many questions and answers linger. Why was the indictment dismissed? Why was it dismissed, unlawfully, after the deadline? And why did the Registrar make conflicting statements about the time of filing of the indictment… Many more questions await clarification…”

Şümuni ve Hürmüz Diril’in kaybolmasının üzerinden iki yıl geçti.
Şimuni Diril’in cansız bedeni bulundu ancak Hürmüz Diril ile ilgili etkili bir arama yok.

iddianname iade edildi. Ve hala açılan bir dav yok. Kapatmanıza izin vermeyeceğiz. Sorularımıza yanıt istiyoruz. pic.twitter.com/Pdgv2M7HLR

— Meral Danış Beştaş (@meraldanis) January 24, 2022

MP Mera Danış-Beştaş’s questions to Minister of Justice Abdulhamit Gul are as follows:

1- What is the reason why the indictment regarding the events in which Shmuni Diril died and Hormuz Diril has been missing for 2 years, is still not prepared?

2- There is a confidentiality order in the case. Is it legal and fair that the family and other victims are not informed of the outcome of the investigation, and that they are only informed of the developments in the case via the press?

3- On what day was the indictment prepared by the Beytüşebap Public Prosecutor’s Office with file number 2020/24 sent to the First High Criminal Court of Şırnak?

4- What is the reason of the Şırnak First High Criminal Court to reject the indictment?

5- Why is this decision being carried out even though it is illegal for the First High Criminal Court of Şırnak to dismiss the indictment sent to the court on January 4, 2022, on January 19, 2022?

6- Why are the procedures for sending the indictment to the court and its dismissal kept secret from the lawyers?

7- Why does the court later state January 5, 2022, as the date of receipt of the indictment?

8- Although the deadline for rejecting the indictment is 15 days, why was this deadline not respected in the Diril file?

9- Despite the submission of the indictment to the court on January 4, isn’t it a crime to mislead the judicial authorities by making different rulings about the timelines? Will the perpetrators of this crime be identified and prosecuted?

10- What is the reason why the indictment is considered insufficient, even though all the evidence has been collected in the Diril file?

11- Is there any connection between the dismissal of the charges related to the Diril file and the meeting between the governor of Şırnak, the chief prosecutor of Şırnak and the president of the Şırnak First High Criminal Court?

12- What is the explanation for the repeated arrests and releases of Apro Diril, one of the suspects in the Diril file?

13- What is the explanation for the contradictions in the forensic report on the death of Shmuni Diril?

14- What is the reason why Hurmuz Diril is still not found? What has been done in the context of the search activities? Why has the search stopped?

15- Is it on your agenda to take the necessary measures to ensure that the fate of the Diril couple does not remain unresolved and that the process runs smoothly?