The judge of the case in which the defendants, including Dilan and Engin Polat, are on trial for the shooting of the beauty centre in Bahçeşehir, submitted a petition to withdraw from the case. The higher court decided to return the file to the same court and to continue the detention of Dilan, Engin and Sezgin Polat. On the other hand, the judge who wanted to withdraw from the case stated in his petition, ‘Whatever I decide after this stage, the parties will not be satisfied in any way, they will look at my impartiality as a doubt in the decisions, they will not even accept my impartiality, it has been evaluated that doubting the impartiality of myself and the judiciary will leave negative impressions and I have withdrawn from the case.’
The beauty centre of social media phenomenon Banu Parlak, located in Bahçeşehir 1st Section Nature Park, was shot by suspects on motorcycles at 02.00 and 04.30 on 1 October 2023. Within the scope of the indictment prepared regarding the incident, the first hearing of the case in which Dilan, Engin and Sezgin Polat were asked to be punished for ‘instigating’ was held on 25 April at Küçükçekmece Courthouse. In the interim decision given by the judge in the first hearing, the judge decided to merge the case file with the gang file at the Istanbul Courthouse. On the other hand, after the first hearing, Banu Parlak, the complainant of the case, gave up her complaint.
The Court of Appeal, which examined the file, reversed the merger decision. Following the events, the judge of Küçükçekmece 3rd Criminal Court of First Instance submitted a petition to Küçükçekmece 5th Assize Court. The petition stated that ‘On 3 June, in the corridor between the courtroom and the pen, Hüseyin Kaya, the lawyer of the defendant Dilan Polat, asked the bailiff about the court judge. In the continuation of the petition, ‘Lawyer Hüseyin Kaya stated that he wanted to say something about the file, and when he asked what the upper limit, which was shown as a reason for the continuation of detention, was, I stated that his requests were rejected after I stated that it was written in the law, that the negotiations that should be written were not written, and that he wanted to meet in my room, I stated that “I have never met with lawyers in my room and I do not accept any files in my room”. He said, “There is nothing left to do, I will complain to the HSK”. After this stage, it has been evaluated that my impartiality has been doubted in terms of myself, that whatever decision I make after this stage, the parties will not be satisfied in any way, that they will look at my impartiality as a doubt in the decisions, that they will not even accept my impartiality, that doubting my impartiality and the impartiality of the judiciary will leave negative impressions, and I have withdrawn from the case. I request that the request for withdrawal be accepted and another judge to be assigned to the file.”
Küçükçekmece 5th Assize Court, on the other hand, decided to return the file to the same court and to continue the detention of Dilan, Engin and Sezgin Polat.
