Referral decision made for Abdüllatif Şener's son!

It has been decided that Bedirhan Şener (42), the son of former minister Abdüllatif Şener, who shot and killed his grandmother Leyla Çetiner (80) in Ankara, will remain in custody and be placed under observation in a psychiatric hospital for a period not exceeding 3 weeks to obtain a report regarding his mental health.

Bedirhan Şener, who lived in the Güvenevler neighborhood of the Çankaya district and was alleged to have psychological problems, killed his grandmother Leyla Çetiner with a handgun on July 31. Police teams arriving at the scene detained Bedirhan Şener. Following his processing at the police station, he was referred to the courthouse, where judicial control measures and a travel ban were imposed. Bedirhan Şener, who was alleged to be mentally unstable and was examined by a forensic doctor in the holding cell, was referred to the Bilkent City Hospital High-Security Forensic Psychiatry Hospital on August 1 and placed under observation. According to the report prepared by Bilkent City Hospital at the end of the observation period, it was stated that Şener did not have a mental illness or deficiency that would affect his criminal responsibility, and that he was able to perceive the legal meaning and consequences of the act regarding the crime he is alleged to have committed. Following this, Şener was referred to the Criminal Judgeship of Peace on August 29, arrested, and sent to prison.

'I DON'T KNOW WHAT I WAS SHOOTING AT'

The first hearing of the case filed against Şener at the Ankara 1st High Criminal Court for the crimes of 'intentional killing of a lineal relative,' 'attempted intentional killing of a lineal relative,' and 'violation of Law No. 6136' was held. The defendant Bedirhan Şener, his family, and lawyers attended the hearing. After the identity verification, the presiding judge gave the floor to the detained defendant Bedirhan Şener. Şener stated, "First of all, I was being followed at that time, and I was in fear because of this. There are such calamities; they pass through walls, they fly. Actually, they go away; but it didn't happen like that at that moment. I heard voices, and then I fired. Such voices came from inside my head. I don't remember seeing my mother or my grandmother. I didn't fire towards any specific place. I don't know what I was shooting at."

'HE WAS LOSING HIS CONNECTION WITH REALITY'

According to DHA's report, his father, former Minister of Finance Abdüllatif Şener, was heard as a witness at the hearing. Stating that his son had psychological ailments in recent days, Abdüllatif Şener said, "His condition was not good. He did not answer his phone in the last 2 days. We thought he would harm himself. We went to the house with his mother and grandmother; while I was busy parking the car, he fired towards the apartment hallway as soon as they opened the door. Other than that, he would lose his connection with reality from time to time. I told his doctors that he was having delusions. He was saying that people were entering his room and harming him; but this was not mentioned in the report. They scanned the camera recordings second by second and determined that no such situation occurred, but they did not include it in the report. He had a history of delusions and hallucinations. There were problems with his work and family life. These problems sometimes caused him not to go to work. He had been working at the Parliament for the last year. My wife and I would follow up; sometimes he would skip work. We would be informed and ask his supervisors to let him use leave. He did not go to work on the day of the incident either. He had previously worked in the party group. He was skipping shifts there too; there was no workload. He had fears in recent days; he had thoughts that he would be killed. We were on vacation, and he was not well at that time. I don't know if it was under the influence of those fears, but I learned that he took my licensed weapon. I had gone on the day of the incident both to check on him and to take the weapon back."

'I AM NOT FILING A COMPLAINT'

Bedirhan Şener's mother, Berrin Şener, stated that she could not reach her son on the day of the incident and said, "I was worried that he would harm himself. I said to my mother, 'Shall we go to Bedirhan's house?' She said, 'Let's go.' We went to his house; while my husband was parking the car, we didn't ring the bell from downstairs, we went up to the first floor and knocked on the door; it opened within a few seconds. Normally, he greets us with a smile. I heard my son fire 2 shots, and I ran away from there. My son did not target me; if that were the case, we would never have gone there. I was not injured in the incident, and I am not filing a complaint. We knew he had psychosis; he would sometimes say things that were not real, and he was going for treatment."

His aunt, Berra Çağlayan, also stated that she was not filing a complaint, saying, "Bedirhan is a person we all love very much; he is very precious to us. I know his health condition is not good. When we spoke, he said, 'I don't feel well, aunt, I am very bad,' and mentioned his delusions."

His uncle, Ali Kemal Çetiner, used the expressions, "I also know that Bedirhan has delusions. I am not filing a complaint; he would not do evil intentionally. He loved my mother very much. He is not a person who would intentionally or willingly harm anyone."

TO BE PLACED UNDER OBSERVATION

Following the statements, the court panel announced its interim decision. While ruling for the continuation of Bedirhan Şener's detention, the court decided to place him under observation in a psychiatric hospital for a period not exceeding 3 weeks to obtain a report on whether he was mentally ill at the time the crime was committed. The court ordered a report to be prepared by the Council of Forensic Medicine regarding whether the defendant has criminal liability and adjourned the hearing to December 5. 

News Source: 12punto