The case regarding the death of 23 year old Gazi University student Şule Çet, who worked for Çağatay Aksu as an assistant, was concluded on December 4, 2019. Çet, after going to Yelken Plaza in Ankara for a business meeting had lost her life due to falling down from the 20th floor of the plaza. 31st Criminal Court concluded that Çet fell victim to murder and sentenced Çağatay Aksu to life sentence and to 12 years 6 months of sentence while sentencing Berk Akand to 18 years 9 months of prison sentence. However, civil society organizations and parties were not late to respond to the lawsuit process.

Women's Councils (Kadın Meclisleri), a woman’s rights organization in Turkey, gathered in front of Yelken Plaza, where Şule Çet lost her life, as Middle East Technical University Social Gender Community started a petition for suspects to be judged without remission. Peoples' Democratic Party HDP deputy Meral Danış Beştaş, called on the Ministry of Family, Work & Social Services to be involved with the case while Communist Party of Turkey called for participation for the lawsuit.

WHAT WAS THE INDICTMENT?

Çağatay Aksu and Berk Akand, were demanded to be judged separately for the crimes of depriving Şule Çet of her liberty, aggravated sexual assault and murder in the first degree. In the indictment, it was stated that Aksu invited Şule Çet to a restaurant for business purposes and sexually assaulting her with his friend Akand, before pushing Çet from the 20th floor of the plaza that the business office is located.

WHO WERE PRESENT AT THE TRIAL?

HDP deputy Filiz Kerestecioğlu, CHP deputies Mahmut Tanal, Sezgin Tanrıkulu and Candan Yüceer, as well as AKP deputy Ahmet Mücait Arınç were all present during the trial. Human Rights Association and We Will Stop Femicide Platform, applied for a demand of intervenance. While chief judge promised to other demands, he only accepted the demands of intervenance of Çet Family and the Ministry of Family, Work & Social Services.

TESTIMONIES OF DEFENDANTS

Çağatay Aksu, who is one one the defendants claiming that Çet took her own life, said that the purpose of the meeting was only for reasons of business and added that Çet coped with monetary and family problems. The other defendant Berk Akand, claimed that he was not sober at the time and passed out due to alcohol.

TESTIMONY OF ÇET’S ROOMMATE

Lila Thorine, the roommate of Şule Çet, also gave her testımony during the trial. Lila, who talked about her messaging with Çet at the time of the crime, told that Çağatay was ‘flirting’ with Şule by messaging her and explained that Çet told her that she did not have any problems. Thorine, later on gave a second testimony due to the claims that she allegedly deleted certain messages. During her second testimony, Thorine told that she did not delete any messages.

STATEMENT OF THE SECURITY PERSONNEL

The security personnel also gave his testimony, telling Aksu that they were investigating the explosion and were informed by Aksu that nothing happened, said that after asking Aksu ‘where Şule went?’, he replied with saying that she left the building. The personnel also added that the ambulance arrived 15-20 minutes later Berk Akand calling Aksu to arrive.

CONFLICTING CLAIMS OF DEFENDANTS

It was seen that the defendants, who had rejected the claims, had conflicting testimonies at the first trial. Çağatay Aksu, claimed that he washed the cups before the incident, while Akand claimed that Aksu washed the drinking cups after Şule jumped down. In addition, it was revealed that Çağatay Aksu put the alcohol bottles into the bin at the lounge.

FORENSIC REPORT OF THE SEXUAL ASSAULT CLAIM

Şule Çet's lawyer Umur Yıldırım, claimed that Çet was first sexually assaulted then died due to her neck being choked and thrown out of the window. He also claimed that both defendants were involved in the sexual assault. Upon this claim, the findings detected in the room did not match with Şule Çet or any other defendants and it was suggested that the claim regarding the event taking place in the mentioned room was suspicious according to the report made by the Forensic Science specialists from Erciyes University. Moreover, while in the report it was indicated that the findings did not match with defendant Aksu’s claim that Şule Çet committed suicide, it was noted that there is a possibility of the room being rearranged, cleaned or Şule Çet committing suicide/being thrown out of the window that was open in the other room which was used as an office as well. On the other hand, in the autopsy conducted by Ankara Group Presidency Forensic Medicine Institution afterwards, it was underlined that the blood sample claimed to belong to Şule Çet, matched with the DNA profile of Şule Çet. It was also detected that there was low level of a male sexual gene in the samples. Also, the forensic medicine report conducted at Mersin University by the lawyer of the Çet Family, Umur Yıldırım remarked that anal bruises referred to the sexual assault and in the report in was added that no sperm were found on the body of Şule Çet.

REPORTS OF PROF. DR. ÇAĞLAR ÖZDEMİR

In the third hearing, the report prepared by Erciyes University Medicine Faculty Forensic Medicine Department Lecturer Prof. Dr. Çağlar Özdemir was presented to the court. According to the specialist view in the report; it was not possible for Çağatay Aksu to try catching Şule Çet while she was hanging down from the window as claimed. Lawyer of the Çet Family, Umur Yıldırım claiming that the investigation was not conducted throughly and the evidences were not collected, presented the report carried out by Prof. Dr. Çağlar Özdemir to the court. In the report, it was remarked that stains of blood, saliva and sperm were found on the carpet while Ankara Police Department Criminal Police Laboratory Biologic Investigation Brach pointed out in their report that the stains on the carpet were not ‘blood’ and ‘sperm’.

FAKE EVIDENCE ATTEMPT

According to journalist Alican Uludağ’s report in Cumhuriyet Daily, it was revealed that Çağatay Aksu planned to pose Şule Çet’s death as a suicide in the letter he wrote to Berk Akand while in prison. It was reported that Aksu told Akand to add a fake message in the documents.

LIP-READING COULD NOT BE CONDUCTED IN THE FOOTAGE

In the lip-reading report on the security camera footages that show the dispute between defendants Çağatay Aksu and Berk Akand, it was stated that the context of the discussion of the defendants could not be determined due to one of the defendants being drunk and having a beard and a mustache that covers his lips.

DECISION IN THE CASE: AGGRAVATED LIFE SENTENCE

With the conclusion of the investigation and the case, Ankara 31st Heavy Penal Court decided that Şule Çet was the victim of a murder case. Jailed and pending trial on the case of murder, Çağatay Aksu was sentenced to life imprisonment and to 12 years and 6 months while defendant Berk Akand was sentenced to 18 years and 9 months.

COURT OF APPEAL AND REASONED DECISION

Objecting to the decision on time off for good behavior and demanding aggravated life imprisonment, Minister of Family, Labor and Social Services Zehra Zümrüt Selçuk told that an appeal will be made to object the decision. On December 25, the court declared the detailed ruling. It was recorded that Şule Çet was pushed from the 20th floor after being sexually assaulted to show the murder as a suicide case. One of the member lawmakers however, objected the ruling and stated that clear evidence was not available to prove that the defendant Çağatay Aksu was involved with a first degree murder, while agreeing on the ruling that Çağatay Aksoy committed a sexual assault. On January 11th, it was reported by Mesut Hasan from Hürriyet Daily that sentences given to the defendants were carried to appeal by the Family, Labor and Social Services Ministry and it was stated by the Ministry that the appeal decision was because the given sentences were “far from relieving the public conscience and was incompatible with the law”.   Translated by Nevzat Ahrar