Criminal Bureau confirms forgery in detention documents of suicide victim

ISTANBUL – Doğan News Agency

The Turkish National Criminal Bureau has confirmed that two police officer suspects changed information on a suspect’s reports in a case in which a young man committed suicide after first being detained on drug-related charges.

According to the bureau’s report sent to the court on Nov. 2, there were 11 documents written about Onur Yaser Can during his detention by two narcotics officers but that only two could be accessed – both of which had been altered.

The man’s father, Mevlüt Can, said the revelation confirmed to the family that the officers changed the documents to whitewash their alleged torture of the man during his detention while demanding that the officers be prosecuted.

He also said the commissioner who administered the case into his son, H.A., as well as his deputy, were arrested as part of probes into Gülenists in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa. 

“The recently arrived report has revealed forgery in the documents. This forgery was made to realize an aim. This incident was not just a notion about edits on dates, names or record numbers. The concerning forgery was an act committed to whitewash the torture and the psychological and sexual pressure my son was subjected to. Here, not only the suspects in this case, but all individuals who testified within the administrative probe should be listened to. The probe [causing Can’s detention] was organized and led to my son’s death,” said Can, recalling that he lost his wife as well, as she committed suicide four years after her son’s death.  

Can said it was wrong to regard this case only as a simple forgery case and added that his to-be-architect son’s death was not just his loss but Turkey’s loss as well. 

Before his death, Can was an architecture student at one of Turkey’s most prestigious universities, Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ). 

He was detained on June 3, 2010, on charges of purchasing marijuana and was released a day after on June 3. His suicide came on June 23, 2010, after he was summoned back to the narcotics bureau on claims that his reports had missing points. Upon this re-call, Can committed suicide, jumping from the balcony of his home in the Şişli district of Istanbul. 

In a legal process beginning after Can’s death, prosecutors dropped a probe on charges of “torture, suicide and maltreatment” for two suspected police officers but opened a case against the suspects on charges of forgery, having sought up to eight years each. The court convicted the suspects, sentencing them to two years and six months each in jail. The ruling, however, was overturned by the Supreme Court of Appeals on the grounds that its expert reports were insufficient and that the suspects only made changes on dates and record numbers.

While the case was being re-seen by the local court, Can’s mother, Hatice Can, who was receiving psychological support, committed suicide by also jumping off a balcony on March 2, 2014.   

The hearing was adjourned with judges asking to submit an expert report. The court said that when it receives the document, it would evaluate other demands from the family as well.