Demirtaş meets Narin Güran's father Arif Güran
RastinewsJailed former HDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş met Arif Güran at Edirne Prison under special permission. Announcing beforehand on social media that he had reviewed the case file, Demirtaş said: "In light of the evidence in the file, the only person whose guilt has been proven with concrete evidence is Nevzat Bahtiyar. Likewise, based on the evidence in the file, finding Narin's mother Yüksel Güran and uncle Salim Güran guilty and sentencing them to aggravated life imprisonment is a complete legal disaster."
Driven by media pressure…
Demirtaş set out his other observations on the case as follows: It appears that the intense public pressure generated by media coverage overshadowed the court's decision-making process.
Setting personal opinions aside, the most basic rule of criminal law is that a conviction must rest on concrete evidence beyond doubt, not on rumor or conjecture.
Under the principle that "the benefit of the doubt goes to the defendant," the evidence in the case file is technically insufficient to justify this sentence for the mother and uncle. Their guilt has not been proven beyond doubt, as the universal principles of law require.
Demirtaş özel izinle Narin Güran'ın babasıyla görüşecekDemirtaş özel izinle Narin Güran'ın babasıyla görüşecek
'Not true justice'
Therefore, the Court of Appeals and the Court of Cassation should certainly have overturned these sentences on review. The law demanded it, because absent new evidence or new confessions, the case file as it stands does not prove the guilt of the mother and uncle. Sentencing people whose guilt has not been proven to aggravated life imprisonment merely to satisfy public conscience is not true justice, and it does not satisfy public conscience. What will truly wound public conscience is the possibility that Narin's real killers remain free while her mother and uncle sit in prison.
A call for justice for the family
I call on all legal circles concerned with this case, starting with the Diyarbakır Bar Association, to work for justice in this matter. I ask the Ministry of Justice to examine the file carefully and apply to the Court of Cassation for annulment in the interest of the law. Narin's memory, her family and the public deserve this. With my regards…