Following a complaint by the suspects, permission was granted to investigate Rojin Kabaiş’s lawyers. The investigation is continuing in Van. Cangüleç made a statement regarding the permission decision issued for Abdurrahman Karabulut and Şahin Cangüleç, the family lawyers of university student Rojin Kabaiş, whose lifeless body was found on the shore of Lake Van days after she went missing in Van. Stating that the Ministry of Justice had granted permission upon a complaint by some individuals who had previously been alleged to be suspects, Cangüleç said the prosecutor’s office requested a written defense and that they had submitted their defense to the file.
Progress has been made in the file. Cangüleç said that significant progress had been achieved since the day they became involved in the file and that some of the requests had been investigated in line with the expert report obtained from Mersin. He also noted that work on the other requests was ongoing. The report contains a list of six names. Noting that the narrowed-down base station report entered into the file contains a list of 6 names, Cangüleç said they were not disclosing the names for the sake of the investigation and that the prosecutor’s office was investigating who these people were. The prosecutor’s office is also investigating where the phone lines were located on the day of the incident, how connected these individuals are to the incident, and whether their DNA will be taken.
The DNA analysis is still ongoing. Cangüleç noted that there had been a partial increase in the number of samples in the DNA analysis, but that no match had yet been found. The phone has still not been unlocked. Saying that Rojin’s phone could not be unlocked despite being sent to two countries, Cangüleç stated that they had met with people who claimed they could unlock it and had provided information to the prosecutor’s office.
Why it matters
The fact that the investigation permit is based on the complaint of the individuals alleged to be suspects in the case places the family’s lawyers, in the very file they are following, in the position of being both representatives and the subjects of an inquiry. This means that every request and application to be made on behalf of the family will henceforth be read through a separate lens not only by the judicial authorities but also in the public eye. The main axis of the case, meanwhile, is tied up in the technical findings: the list of six names is still at the stage of identity and connection research, there is no DNA match, and the phone still cannot be unlocked despite having been sent to two countries. In other words, while concrete names are coming to the fore in the case, evidence that would confirm or rule them out has yet to be produced. The development shows that, at a threshold where the investigation is advancing but is running up against technical obstacles, the family’s legal representation has also been opened up to debate.