Istanbul: A court in Turkey on Monday sentenced a police officer to jail for 13 years over the death of a protester during anti-government demonstrations in 2013, local media reported.
The demonstrator, 22-year-old Abdullah Comert, suffered a fractured skull when he was hit in the head by a tear gas round fired by police during the protest in the southern town of Hatay, and died soon afterwards.
The court decided the 30-year-old officer, identified only by the initials AK, fired the round and found him guilty of manslaughter and sentenced him to 13 years and four months in prison, Dogan news agency said.
The officer was cleared of murder, a charge that risked a 25-year sentence.
He is currently posted to Diyarbakir, the main city in Turkey's Kurdish-dominated southeast, and did not attend Monday's hearing.
One of the lawyers for the victim's family condemned the ruling, saying they wanted the officer punished for intentional homicide.
The 2013 movement began as an environmental demonstration in Istanbul but spread into a more general wave of protest against then prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is now president.
Erdogan cracked down hard on the protests, with at least eight people killed, more than 8,000 injured and thousands more arrested, according to rights groups.
AFP
