Inquest hearing into the murder of Nigerian student, Kennedy Taomwabwa Dede held in Famagusta court, evidence submitted in court

An inquest hearing into the murder of Nigerian student, Kennedy Taomwabwa Dede, who was murdered in a catastrophic incident by a gang of Turkish Cypriots in January, 2019 was held in court in on Tuesday.

Kennedy Taomwabwa Dede, 28 an Architecture student at the Eastern Mediterranean University in Magusa was kidnapped by 7 gang members on January, 29 from his resident in Famagusta and taken to the Çanakkale lake in the outskirt of the city where he was seriously beaten and killed.

Following the incident, 7 suspects namely; Ozan Korkurt, 18, Zekeriya Founder, 22, Burcu Çelik, 16, Onur Körkurt, 21, Simge Dağdur, 28, Aydan Sel and Nidai Şanlı, 28 were arrested in connection with the murder and charged to court in Lefkosa for murder, human abduction and serious assault.

Police investigation later revealed that Kennedy was murdered over 1000TL loan.

During the investigation, police said they gathered over 190 statements and testimonies, retrieved deleted messages and screened 142 phone conversations.

For months, the case has been on hold as forensic evidence on the murder were being expected from Turkey.

 

On Tuesday, April, 30, four more evidence against the accused were presented in a court in Famagusta.

In Tuesday's court hearing, three pieces of skin tissue samples from the victim taken for analysis at the Forensic Medicine Institute in Turkey brought to court as evidence showed that Dede was not subjected to electric shock as earlier claimed during investigation.

As such, the allegations against one of the defendant Nidai Sanli that he subjected Dede to electric shock was struck out.

Another report from the Istanbul Forensic Medicine Institute on the presence of drug and alcohol in the blood of the victim is also being expected.

Also, the phones of the defendants analyzed by Turkey's Police Cyber ​​Crime Combating Department, and recorded in a DVD were presented in court but unfortunately, the DVD content could not be displayed in court because it works with a Blu-Ray system which is not available in the country.

Verbal interpretation of the content of the DVD will be used in court against the defendants.

In Tuesday's court session, all the defendants except one of the accused Onur Körkurt, witnesses to the incident, sim cards and DVDs in which the data of the phones and cards were transferred into, were presented to the court individually.

Thus, the number of orders presented to the court was 206.

Police prosecutor, Hasan Bosni who carried out the case stated that he had closed his case and declared that he would present to the court the terms of the purposes of the first investigation hearing.

Lawyers defending the defendants did not object to the evidence provided in court.

The defendants however did not plead guilty to charges of kidnapping, assault and murder brought against them and pleaded not guilty.

The judge listened to the case from where he had left off in November, 2018 and adjourned hearing till May, 7, 2019.

Source: Kibris (Not 100% translated from Turkish Language)