Sharon Graham and Kathy Dinsmore

The Turkish town of Izmir was the centre of attention on Thursday as the first court hearing for the accused double murderer of the two Northern Ireland women Sharon Graham and Kathy Dinsmore. At the Bayrakli City Courthouse we met with solicitor Baris Kaska who is acting on behalf of the Graham and Dinsmore families. With him for the planned 10.00am court hearing were the members of the Graham family together with Raymond McGuiness starting with Shannon, sisters Karen, Lorraine, Martina and brother David. They were also accompanied by Padraig Mac Coscair from the Irish Embassy in Ankara who was to be at hand for any Consul advice or communications that would be required. There was no-one there to represent the Dinsmore family as her brother was unwell and unable to come to Turkey for the trial.

Once we all battled our way through the main entrance of the massive court building as the local and national press hassled for the best photographs, and arrived at the door of the appointed courtroom and waiting for half an hour, under the constant glare of the Cetin family who strategically positioned themselves on each corner of the room so as to do as much intimidating as possible. We were given the news that the time had been set back till 1,00pm as the first case of the day was going to take longer than expected.

So it was off to the local Turkish cuisine centre for breakfast and a chance to take to the members of the family. They had to pay for their own flights that cost over £400.00 each, leaving from Dublin with changes in Frankfurt and Munich in Germany then on to Izmir AirPort. A total of 14 hours travelling. While we were in the restaurant the Çetin family were obnoxious enough to sit at a table separated from them by a glass panel.
Back to the court for the appointed time then at five past one the father of the defendant Eyup Çetin, was called into the

Recep Çetin was brought into the courtroom via an internal stairway accompanied by a number of gendarmerie. As the hearing progressed it was revealed that there was a new witness who had seen Eyup Cetin together with his son Reçep in the cemetary on the Gökdere road near Izmir on the day of the murders. This witness had seen the news of Eyup Çetin’s release, and was afraid to go to the authorities as the person feared for their safety. The witness came to Baris Kaska who then guaranteed their privacy. Today the court listened to the new evidence and the statement was accepted. There was already doubt about the truth of his original statement as he had changed it 3 times.

After only 15 minutes Eyup Cetin was escorted from the court to a holding room barely able to walk and clearly full of despair at being found out. The judge told the police not to let him out of their sight as he would deal with him later that day. The judge was convinced that the murders could not have been carried out by one person and this piece of evidence put Eyup Cetin in the picture.The news later came to us that he had been remanded in custody after being officially arrested for his part in the murders.

The main request from Baris Kaska was to ask the court to accept a plea for a bone marrow test to be done on the defendant Recep Çetin to prove the fact that he is over 20 years old and not 17 as he and his family has claimed. This request was granted but during the conversation Recep had the audacity to joke with the judge and say he was really 25. On hearing this he was told to shut up by the judge. It was added that on the fathers original statement he told police that Recep was 22 years old, but later retracted. If the results come in as positive and show that Recep Çetin is really an adult then it will mean that his prison sentence will stretch from around 5-8 years to a total of 2 life sentences of 24 years each.

Although we were not permitted to enter the courtroom we were constantly talking the police who were coming and going from the room.  nbeknown to the police in the room was the fact that I speak fluent Turkish. On one occasion they said he was dancing about the dock as if he was high but was obviously trying to prove that he was taking all in his stride. At times he was very obnoxious towards the judge and even spoke in his native Kurdish language to irritate the court. During the time of the hearing there were no other members of the press allowed into the waiting room but as we were invited as special guests of the solicitor we were permitted to stay. The police did not know that we were journalists.
The hearing took a total of 3.5 hours and as we listened to the different goings on from the police we also heard that the type car that was supposedly used on the day belonging to Eyup Çetin was an old black Tofas Sahin. These used to be Fiats but are now manufactured in Turkey and are quite common as second-hand parts are easily available.

During the afternoon as we all waited, watching the door of the courtroom, the brothers and uncles of Recep Çetin were in permanent position on their perches leaving an eye on the members of the Graham family. That was until the police in the courthouse realised what was happening and showed them the door to another waiting room. With the court finished and the results given by Baris Kaska, we headed for the door and to the grasps of the press. Baris gave a statement to the press and explained everything that happened during the hearing and went on to say that he had a lot of hope for the Turkish justice system.

During her statement to the judge Shannon Graham said that 2 weeks before the murders her mother told her she would take her back to Ireland and forbid her return to Turkey. On that day Recep told them that he would do something to hurt the family.

The family then made their escape from the front of the courthouse and the press by a yellow taxi then it was back to the office for a sum-up of the day’s events. As we were passing the front of the courthouse we were amazed as Nurettin Çetin who is the uncle of the defendant was giving a statement to the press in where he was criticising and running down the girls and women of the Graham and Dinsmore families.

He told the members of the Turkish press that the girls spent their time running around with different boyfriends and had left a list of rent and other bills unpaid. We believe that this is a total disgrace as the Çetin family should be apologising to the Graham and Dinsmore families for what they have done instead of trying to run their name into the ground.

When Raymond Graham was asked about this he told us that he was the one who sponsored the women every time they wanted to come to Turkey and that there was never any reason for them to have any debt. All in all BarisKaska was happy with the day’s events especially with the arrest of Eyup Çetin and the fact that the bone marrow test had been authorised by the court. We will have to wait now until the 22nd of February for the next court hearing and hope that the results of the said bone marrow test are ready in time.

Following the court we all returned to the offices of Baris Kaska but the family members refused to give any comments as they said they had a long day and were very upset with the memories that the court brought back to them. They did ask us to publically thank their lawyer. David Graham to me that they have had no thoughts of Christmas and they are still trying to come to terms with the loss of their mother. Source -http://aegeanindependent.com