15 defendants appear in court again in Narin Güran case

The second hearing of the trial regarding the discovery of 8-year-old Narin Güran's lifeless body inside a sack in a stream bed 19 days after she went missing in the rural area of the Bağlar district of Diyarbakır has begun.

A total of 15 defendants, 6 of whom are in custody, are continuing their defense with the testimony of witnesses in the 17th Criminal Court of First Instance, where they are being tried for the crime of 'harboring a criminal'.

The trial of the 15 defendants, who face prison sentences ranging from 6 months to 5 years each, began in the 17th Criminal Court of First Instance with the hearing of witnesses.

THE NARİN GÜRAN MURDER

A lawsuit was filed in the Diyarbakır 8th High Criminal Court against 4 people regarding the death of Narin Güran, whose lifeless body was found in a sack, covered with stones and hidden by bushes in a stream bed on the 19th day of search efforts after she went missing on August 21, 2024, in the rural Tavşantepe neighborhood of the Bağlar district.

Aggravated life imprisonment was requested for her uncle Salim Güran, whose vehicle contained DNA and hair samples belonging to Narin; her mother Yüksel Güran; her brother Enes Güran; and their neighbor Nevzat Bahtiyar, who confessed to carrying the body to the stream bed after being taken into custody, on charges of 'intentional killing of a child in complicity'.

In the second hearing of the case held on December 28, Salim Güran, Enes Güran, and Yüksel Güran were sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment for 'intentional killing of a child in complicity', while Nevzat Bahtiyar was sentenced to 4 years and 6 months in prison for 'destroying, concealing, or altering criminal evidence'.

TWO SEPARATE INDICTMENTS FOR 15 DEFENDANTS

The Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor's Office filed a lawsuit in the Diyarbakır 17th Criminal Court of First Instance against detainees Birsen Güran, Fuat Güran, Maşallah Güran, Salim Güran's worker Mehmet Selim Atasoy, Mehmet Şevket Kaya, and Muhammed Kaya, as well as non-detained suspects Şeyma Kaya, Hediye Güran, İbrahim Halil Güran, Barış Güran, Kurtuluş Güran, and Ömer Faruk Güran, on charges of 'harboring a criminal'. An indictment prepared against non-detained minors M.G. (15), İ.K. (16), and R.A. (15) for the crime of 'harboring a criminal' was also accepted by the Diyarbakır 2nd Juvenile Court. Subsequently, the two case files were merged.

PRESIDING JUDGE COMPLAINED TO THE HSK

The first hearing where the defendants were tried in the 17th Criminal Court of First Instance was held on April 14. Lawyers for the Ministry of Family and Social Services and the Saadet Teacher Association for Combating Child Abuse (UCİM) requested to join the case. Defense attorneys for the defendants requested that the requests to join be rejected. Evaluating the request, the judge decided to accept the requests to join. The judge also rejected the defense attorneys' request for the judge's recusal. Following the defenses, the defense attorneys requested the release and acquittal of their clients. The court decided to continue the current status of the detained defendants and adjourned the hearing to April 25.

Following the hearing, the defense attorneys filed a complaint against the presiding judge with the Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSK) on April 17. The petition stated that the defenses were moved to without reminding the defendants of their right to remain silent and other rights, without the indictment being read by the prosecutor, that an irrelevant association was included as a participant in the case, and that the lower limit of the crime for which the defendants were being tried was 6 months, but the time they spent in detention exceeded 7 months, and requested that an investigation be opened against the presiding judge.