Nuri Gökhan Bozkır wanted to commit suicide

The capture and return to Turkey of former Special Forces Command member Nuri Gökhan Bozkır—who was first labeled a "person in the know" and later made a defendant in the investigation into the assassination of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Necip Hablemitoğlu, the most significant unsolved murder in our recent history—was first announced by Erdoğan. When the indictment took shape and was revealed, the atmosphere created in the media was that the murder had been fully clarified in all its aspects.

However, when the trials began, it was seen that this was not the case, and all defendants, primarily the individual initially alleged to be the "trigger man," were released. The media's attitude at this stage was also noteworthy; the interest shown in the indictment was not shown in the trials. So much so that Ersan Barkın, the lawyer for the Hablemitoğlu family, said during last week's hearings, "Sabah newspaper lost interest in the case after the trials began."

We have quite a lot to say about the course of the case; but for now, let us just emphasize this:

On the first day of last week's hearings, Abdurrahman Şimşek, who worked for many years as the Special Intelligence Director at Sabah and is now the News Coordinator, and who went to Ukraine in 2020 to interview Nuri Gökhan Bozkır, was heard as a witness; however, what he recounted did not become a single line of news in his newspaper.

Leaving the assessments regarding the possible reasons for this for later, let us convey some information about the key figure of the case, Nuri Gökhan Bozkır.

As we stated above: All of Turkey learned from Erdoğan that Bozkır had been captured in Ukraine and brought back. Immediately afterward, images of Bozkır at the police station were shared with the public.

However, when the trials began a year later, Bozkır claimed that he had been brought by the MIT (National Intelligence Organization) and had been tortured there for about a month. In one hearing, he even showed his foot to the court panel and the prosecutor, saying the marks were still there. Bozkır's lawyers also confirmed these allegations and requested that a criminal complaint be filed. Although the lawyers presented the Ankara Bar Association's report stating that Bozkır had been tortured, the first panel hearing the case did not accept this request.

Repeating the torture allegation at last week's hearing, Nuri Gökhan Bozkır, tearfully, said, "I was on the team that brought the PKK member Şemdin Sakık. The state did to me what it did not do to him. They cannot pay the price for this." Meanwhile, his lawyer Mehmet Şerif Felekoğlu stated that due to the torture, Bozkır's first two statements should not be accepted as evidence against either himself or the other defendants.

The court also made an interesting decision to have the request in question discussed in the reasoned decision.

The following words of Bozkır's other lawyer, Emrah Yücel, were also quite remarkable:

"Let us wrap Nuri Gökhan Bozkır in cotton wool. If he dies, this case will not end. If something happens to him, the responsibility will fall on all of us in this courtroom."

WHEN HE WAS CAPTURED 2 MONTHS AGO

It was evident in every hearing that Bozkır's mental state was poor, but there must have been another reason for his lawyer's statements. Naturally, we investigated. Before the result we reached, let us explain the following for those who do not know:

Before the Hablemitoğlu assassination investigation, it was reported that explosives hidden in onion sacks were seized in a truck stopped in Şanlıurfa in September 2015. An investigation was opened, stating that the shipment in question was carried out by an organization led by Nuri Gökhan Bozkır, who had gone to Ukraine legally four days after this incident. Although an arrest warrant was issued for Bozkır, no red notice was issued, nor was the path of taking his statement via rogatory letter followed.

However, after being captured and brought in regarding the Hablemitoğlu assassination, and even though Ukraine only accepted Bozkır's extradition to be tried in the Hablemitoğlu case, Bozkır also participated in the "Onion Trucks" case and presented his defense. During these hearings, while the arrest warrant for Bozkır was lifted, no decision was made for his detention.

One week after being released with judicial control conditions in the Hablemitoğlu assassination case, Bozkır was the only defendant among those tried in that case to be sentenced to 21 years and 9 months in prison, and an arrest warrant was issued for him.

Meanwhile, Bozkır had complied with the judicial control in the Hablemitoğlu assassination case and had gone to the police station to sign in. However, it was understood that he had fled after the conviction decision in the "Onion Trucks" case. Moreover, exactly 25 days later; and that was only when he did not go to the police station to sign in. Because after the decision in the "Onion Trucks" case, no one had gone to his wife's or his mother's house to look for him.

It was written and drawn that after fleeing, Bozkır had escaped abroad; that he had crossed into Greece via the Meriç River and from there to Europe, and that security units had launched an investigation at border gates, sea routes, and customs. However, 7 months later, on the night of January 2, the General Directorate of Security announced that Bozkır had been captured as a result of an operation carried out in Ankara.

After this capture, Bozkır was arrested for both the Hablemitoğlu and the "Onion Trucks" cases.

We will come to the night of the operation.

The allegation is that when the police went to the address where he was located upon a tip-off, Bozkır did not open the door, called his lawyers, and said he would commit suicide. When the lawyers, who tried to persuade Bozkır on the phone for a long time, could not succeed, they found the solution in sending his mother and wife to the address in question. Only after this attempt did Bozkır give up on suicide and agree to surrender.

It was learned that because of this incident, Lawyer Emrah Yücel gave that message at Friday's hearing out of concern that Bozkır, whose mental state is severely impaired, might attempt suicide in prison as well.

Another detail from the night of the operation is as follows:

Bozkır's mobile phone and tablet, which he used while on the run, were seized without a seizure warrant, without any report being drawn up, and without images of the devices being taken. When Bozkır was brought to court to be arrested, the judge even said, "There is no seizure warrant, I will not take them, take them away." His lawyers asked for them to be given to them; however, the police did not give them, saying, "Let us send these to Cyber Crimes."

Here you go; in such an important case, another negligence that will lead to suspicion and debate regarding the possible examination of the devices in question, especially the results that will emerge regarding who Bozkır communicated with for 7 months!..