05/12/2023 | Writer: Yıldız Tar
Volkan Hicret, the police officer who killed Hande Buse Şeker, confessed that he gave his first statement at the suggestion of his colleagues. At the retrial, Hicret was sentenced for intentional killing, attempted intentional killing, sexual assault and robbery.
The verdict was returned for Hande Buse Şeker case, which was reopened after the verdict was overturned. In today’s (December 5) trial heard at the Izmir 4th Heavy Penal Court, the police officer Volkan Hicret, who killed Hande Buse Şeker in 2019, was sentenced for continued sexual assault after the murder and attempted to kill the other trans woman in the house, on charges of intentional killing, attempted intentional killing, qualified sexual assault and robbery.
Hicret was sentenced to life imprisonment for intentional killing for the murder of Hande Buse Şeker; 11 years for attempted murder of the other trans woman who was at home at the time, 27 years for qualified sexual assault, and 13 years for robbery against both trans women. The sentence given for the offence of robbery will be applied twice for 5 years and 6 months each due to vested rights. On the other hand, Hicret had also attacked her friend who was with him. The court sentenced him to 2 years for intentional injury. This sentence will be executed for 9 months. Hicret was sentenced to 2 years for insulting the memory of a person. The court did not consider the grounds for discretionary mitigation or unjust provocation reduction for Hicret.
Şeker’s lawyers Sena Yazıbağlı and Mahmut Şeren attended the hearing today. Commenting on the verdict to KaosGL.org, Lawyer Yazıbağlı reacted by saying, “What more had to happen for it to be considered as a murder committed brutally or through torment.” Lawyer Yazıbağlı reminded that the sexual assault continued after Şeker's murder.
During the hearing, Hicret defended himself for almost an hour. Hicret, who was a police officer at the time of the murder and committed the murder with a police weapon when he was off duty, confessed in his first statement that he had been instructed by his colleagues. Hicret said he had no regrets because he did not remember the events and that what he had said in his first statement was what he had been told by his colleagues.
Hicret also took a swipe at the press and demanded the court not to let the press to put the case on the agenda. In his defense, Hicret argued that the camera footage Hande Buse Şeker had installed in her house shouldn't be considered as evidence and requested that the footage showing everything that happened not be included in the file.
CLICK - The case file of Hande Buse Şeker is still pending at the Forensic Medicine Center
Translation: Selma Koçak
Tags: human rights, women
