Search for justice for Sezgin Dağ continues

Sezgin Dağ, a survivor of the ISIS attack in Suruç in 2015, died on the way to hospital in Switzerland in 2020 because of negligence by those in charge at an asylum centre where he was living as a refugee.

Activists organized a commemoration event at the asylum centre in the town of Lyss, in the Swiss canton of Bern, for Sezgin Dağ, a survivor of the ISIS attack in Suruç in 2015, who lost his life in Switzerland in 2020 because of negligence. During the commemoration in front of the asylum centre, activists reiterated their demand for justice for Sezgin Dağ.


Dağ was seriously injured by shrapnel in the heart area in the ISIS suicide bombing in Suruç on July 20, 2015. 33 mainly young people died in the attack. The activists of the Federation of Socialist Youth Associations (SGDF) had gathered at the Amara Cultural Center and wanted to hold a press conference before their departure for Kobanê. The planned trip to Kobanê was intended to be an act of solidarity. The young people wanted to bring children's toys and humanitarian aid supplies to the city destroyed by ISIS. 104 people were injured in the suicide attack.

The Confederation of Oppressed Migrants in Europe (AvEG-Kon) accuses the authorities of negligence in the case of Sezgin Dağ who lived for some time in exile in Switzerland. Instead of speeding up his asylum procedure in view of the trauma he had suffered and the serious injury, Dağ was accommodated in a refugee shelter. After experiencing critical health problems, he was sent from there to hospital where the doctor concluded that there was no evidence of a heart attack or heart failure despite the fact that his heart had been damaged since the attack, which he survived with serious injuries. In 2019, he was given a stent in Turkey following a heart attack and in September 2020, he underwent an extensive check-up in the cardiology department in a hospital in Bern. The doctor prescribed painkillers and tranquillisers and discharged him.

Barely back at the asylum centre, Sezgin Dağ turned to a carer and the night guard again as he suffered from massive pain. Although it was obvious that he had to go to hospital, those in charge at the asylum centre didn't call an ambulance and instead put him in a taxi alone. When the car arrived at the hospital just ten minutes later, Dağ had no pulse. Doctors tried to resuscitate him, but to no avail. Sezgin Dağ was then pronounced dead.

Speaking during the commemoration today, Ali Orak from the Federation of Immigrant Workers in Switzerland (IGIF) stated that it has been three years now, but still no one has had to answer for Sezgin Dağ's death. He criticised the fact that the public prosecutor's office responsible was showing no real interest in a serious investigation into the case and that an appeal by the lawyers of Dağ's relatives against the discontinuation of the proceedings was still pending before the Swiss Supreme Court.

Sezgin Dağ's brother Murtaza stated that the public prosecutor's office had rejected a total of 27 requests for evidence from the defence on the grounds that they were not relevant to clarify the facts of the case. He accused the authorities of failing to fulfil their duty to investigate. He also complained that the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) and the Swiss refugee organisation ORS were doing nothing to ensure justice, at least to some extent, apart from blaming each other for the death of Sezgin Dağ.