Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç said Monday Türkiye would safeguard the rights of late Turkish American activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi and that an ongoing investigation into her death in the occupied West Bank while protesting Israeli illegal settlements would continue both on local and international levels. Eygi was killed in gunfire from Israeli troops during the protest earlier this month and was buried in western Türkiye.

Tunç answered reporters' questions during an event in Antalya, where Eygi was born. He said they would deliver a report and accompanying evidence regarding the killing of "sister Ayşenur" to the International Court of Justice. He said the same report and evidence would be presented to the ongoing trial of Israeli perpetrators of crimes in Gaza at the International Criminal Court.

"Eygi was brutally killed by Israeli soldiers. She was there to condemn the genocide, the terrorists, she was there to advocate for the rights of oppressed Palestinians. She attended a peaceful human rights rally," Tunç said. The minister noted that Türkiye took swift action after her killing, and the Chief Prosecutor's Office in the capital, Ankara, had launched an investigation.

Last week, initial results of the postmortem examination of Eygi in Türkiye were disclosed by the Turkish media, which said a 26-year-old woman, who succumbed to her wounds on Sept. 6 after the incident in the West Bank, was killed by a long-distance shot. The examination found Eygi suffered from brain bleeding and damage prior to her death. She had one gunshot wound on her body and the report of investigators says this single wound alone was sufficient to cause death.

"According to the skin and subcutaneous findings of the firearm bullet core entry wound, since no burns, smoke, soot and gunpowder residues were detected around the firearm entry hole, the shot was fired from a distance," the report concluded.

Israel's killing of Eygi earlier this month drew international outrage, including from a host of Turkish officials, and U.S. Vice President and presidential contender Kamala Harris called the killing "unacceptable." The forensic autopsy report done in the Turkish coastal city of Izmir, where her body was recently repatriated before funeral services, said that no toxic substance was found in the blood. The report said the entry wound was damaged and the bullet core was removed in the first autopsy performed in Palestine. No definite opinion could be formed about the direction of the shot or the bullet core due to a lack of images of the scene of the incident.

Eygi was a human rights activist who was a volunteer of the International Solidarity Movement, which supports Palestinians through peaceful and civilian means against the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. U.S. citizen Rachel Corrie, who was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer in 2003, also belonged to the same movement.

On Sept. 3, Eygi went to observe a protest in the town of Beita in Nablus to stand against the illegal Israeli settlements there. The movement reported that on Sept. 6, Eygi was intentionally targeted and killed by an Israeli sniper standing on a nearby rooftop. Eyewitnesses reported that when she was shot in the head by the sniper, Eygi was far from the main protest area. She was taken to a Palestinian hospital, but despite doctors' best efforts, she could not be saved. Turkish diplomatic missions in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem coordinated the transfer of her body from Tel Aviv to Baku, Azerbaijan, before her final journey to Türkiye.

Thousands of people joined the funeral ceremony for Eygi in Türkiye, including politicians from the ruling party and opposition parties, in a show of solidarity for the Palestinian cause Eygi died for. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan earlier pledged to seek justice for Eygi and over 41,000 Gazan civilians killed by Israel since October 2023. "In courts of law, we will hold Israel accountable for the killing of Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, along with over 41,000 of our Gazan brothers and sisters," he said at a recent news conference.

Tunç told reporters that the autopsy carried out in Türkiye complied with international standards and was valid before international courts. "We will protect her rights posthumously, both here and abroad. President Erdoğan will make a speech at the U.N. General Assembly and will likely speak about it as well," he said. The minister also mentioned a recent meeting with the Palestinian ambassador in Ankara and said that the envoy handed over details of the Palestinian investigation into Eygi's killing to Turkish authorities as part of their judicial cooperation deal.