Paris massacre: Intelligence reports censored

2015-04-18 10:21:01

NEWS DESK (DİHA) - Families of Sakine Cansız, Fidan Doğan and Leyla Şaylemez, who were murdered in Paris on 9 January 2013, complained that French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has not kept his promise to shed light on the killings. Lawyers have on the other hand stated that the intelligence reports on which the French government has partially lifted restrictions contained information already known.

Lawyers pursuing the case have sent a letter to French Prime Minister Manuel Valls asking him to keep his promise to expose the truth on the brutal murder of the three Kurdish women revolutionaries. According to French news agency AFP which has obtained a copy of the letter, lawyers stated that the Prime Minister, far from fulfilling his promise, hasn't unveiled the confidential information on the killings.

In the letter, lawyers reminded that PM Valls had promised hope to the families of the victims when he first came to the scene on 10 January 2013, when he was the Interior Minister.

A recent report by Le Monde newspaper revealed that the French government has partially lifted restrictions on the publication of intelligence reports. Le Monde said that 39 documents from the Internal Security organisation, DGSI, and 7 documents from the External Security organisation, DGSE, had been redacted.

The prosecutor pursuing suspect Ömer Güney's visits and activities in Turkey requested the Ministries of Interior and Defense to disclose the documents held by the French agencies.

According to AFP, the Consultative Commission on National Defence Secrets? (CCSDN) delivered an opinion to the ministers for a partial lifting of the confidentiality on documents regarding the killings in January and February.

Lawyers stated that the documents have greatly been censored, while the rest recently disclosed contained information already known by investigators or public, reacting that these were of no use for the progress of the investigation. Pointing to a note dated 7 Jan.2013, two days before the murders, lawyers said that only three paragraphs of a 5-page note about one of the victims was disclosed.

Lawyers also stressed that almost the whole of the 7-page note on suspect Ömer Güney, dated 23 Feb.2013, was kept confidential. Addressing to the Prime Minister, lawyers said; “We are far from the promise you made in order for an entire exposure of the truth on this unendurable action.”

Lawyers demanded the French government's full involvement in the case in order for light to be shed on the killings.

(nt)