A police officer in Turkey, Cengiz Yıldız, was sentenced to six years in prison by for the murder of a Nigerian immigrant, Festus Okey.

Yıldız was sentenced by Turkey’s Constitutional Court who ruled that Okey’s right to life was violated in his murder by police in Istanbul’s Beyoğlu Police Station on Aug. 20, 2007.

According to reports, officer Yıldız who has now been charged with manslaughter shot Okey while in detention and later died in the hospital.

However, it took the system about four years to conclude after the primary piece of evidence regarding the murder was allegedly misplaced: Okey’s shirt.

Without Okey’s shirt, which would show the distance from which he was shot, the case against the police officer who killed the immigrant lasted four years.

Local media (Duvar) revealed that Yıldız never served his prison sentence for involuntary manslaughter, which would have been a mere four years and two months.

Yıldız’s six-year sentence came after a second trial for Okey’s case restarted in 2018, this time with his mother and brother’s involvement, with one of the judges on the case stating that Yıldız should have been charged with 20 years on charges of manslaughter with eventual intent, and the court ruling was appealed by Okey’s attorneys.

A separate application to the Constitutional Court by Okey’s attorneys lead to the ruling that Okey’s right to life was violated and issued damages for the family.

The top court did however did not rule in favour of the attorney’s claims that Okey’s murder was racial discrimination, or that the courts had been lenient toward the defendant, police officer Yıldız.