(Montreal) The decision of the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP) not to lay charges against the officers who participated in the police intervention that led to the death of Koray Kevin Celik in 2017 must be reviewed by a committee independent, pleads the League of Rights and Freedoms (LDL) in the light of the conclusions of the coroner called to look into this file.
For the LDL, “it is clear that Mr. Celik was the victim of police brutality and that the use of force contributed to his death”, indicates the organization in a statement released the day after the publication of the coroner’s report Luc Malouin.
Koray Kevin Celik, 28, was intoxicated shortly after 2 a.m. on March 6, 2017, in the borough of L’Île-Bizard–Sainte-Geneviève, in the west of Montreal. In his condition, his parents wanted to prevent him from driving. So they called 911 for help.
The police officers who arrived on the scene tried to subdue Mr. Celik, in particular with a telescopic baton. However, according to his parents, the officers used excessive force, repeatedly hitting their son with their feet and knees, before he stopped breathing hours later.
On Friday, Coroner Malouin concluded in his report that Mr. Celik died in an intervention that “was not carried out in application of the elementary principles of good police intervention”.
According to the coroner, the police placed themselves in an awkward position and it was they who created the need to use force to restrain Mr. Celik.
However, the DPCP had ruled in 2019 that “considering the imminent danger they faced and the individual’s failure to comply, the police had reasonable grounds to believe that the force applied to the man was necessary for their protection and that of the relatives on site”.
The LDL believes that this conclusion was based solely on the version of the police provided to the Bureau of Independent Investigations (BEI), and that the coroner’s report published on Friday is categorical enough to justify that an independent committee, appointed by the government, examine on the DPCP’s decision not to lay charges against the officers involved.
