A court has fined a police officer 19,000 Turkish lira after he killed six-year-old Furkan Yıldırım and seven-year-old Muhammed Yıldırım with a police panzer while they were sleeping in their home.

The two brothers were killed in the Silopi district of Şırnak, eastern Turkey, on 3 May 2017. A judicial process was launched after the incident.

While the defendant police member, Ömer Yiğit, was sentenced to a fine, his chief, Murat Maden, was acquitted.

The family of the deceased objected to the court’s decision and applied to the court of appeals.

However, the decision was considered legal by the court. The mother of the two children said the murderers were being protected.