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Turkish cop photographed killing Kurdish student walks free

Young Kurd Kemal Kurkut was shot dead in 2017 in Diyarbakir and while his police officer killer will go unpunished, the photographer who documented the incident faces serious charges.

KemKur.jpg
Kemal Kurkut, a 23-year-old Turkish university student, is shot dead by police in this series of photos taken in Diyarbakir by photojournalist Abdulrahman Gok, who is on trial and faces a 20-year sentence for taking them. — Abdulrahman Gok

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but eight shots taken by journalist Abdulrahman Gok scream one: murder. Gok is on trial for taking the photos in Diyarbakir on the morning of March 21, 2017. The prosecutor is demanding 20 years. 

The bare-chested 23-year-old in the photos is Kemal Kurkut. He was a college student majoring in music, a violin player who traveled to Diyarbakir that day for Newroz. After almost four years of trial, the officer who fired the shot was acquitted in mid-November.

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