Appeals Court issues ruling on the Sinan Ateş murder case!
The appeals court has found the verdicts issued against 20 defendants regarding the murder of former Ülkü Ocakları Education and Culture Foundation President and Hacettepe University faculty member Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sinan Ateş on December 30, 2022, to be in accordance with the law.
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The 1st Criminal Chamber of the Ankara Regional Court of Justice has completed its appellate review of the file concerning the Sinan Ateş murder case, which was concluded by the Ankara 32nd High Criminal Court on October 2, 2024.
The Chamber stated that there were no procedural or substantive irregularities in the verdict rendered by the local court, noting that there was no inaccuracy in the judgments based on the court's conviction and discretion formed in accordance with the investigation results and the content of the examined file.
The decision ruled for the continuation of the detention of the incarcerated defendants.
WHAT HAD HAPPENED?
Ateş lost his life in an armed attack in the Kızılırmak neighborhood of the Çukurambar district in Çankaya on December 30, 2022, and a lawsuit was filed against 22 people regarding the murder.
In the court's hearing on October 2, 2024, defendants Eray Özyağci (the shooter), Vedat Balkaya (the driver of the motorcycle used in the incident), and Suat Kurt (who conducted reconnaissance at the crime scene) were sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment for "premeditated murder" and 13 years each for "attempted murder" against the complainant Selman Bozkurt. Özyağci was also sentenced to 1 year and 6 months in prison for "possession and carrying of an unlicensed firearm."
Defendants Doğukan Çep and Tolgahan Demirbaş, who were included in the file as "instigators of the crime," were sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment for "instigating premeditated murder."
PRISON SENTENCES FOR 5 DEFENDANTS
Defendants Aşkın Mert Gelenbey, Murat Can Çolak, and Emre Yüksel were sentenced to 18 years each, and defendant Mustafa Uzunlar was sentenced to 15 years in prison for "aiding in premeditated murder," while defendant Alper Atay was sentenced to 2 years in prison for "harboring a criminal."
The other defendants, Zekeriya Asarkaya, Hakan Saraç, Ufuk Köktürk, Mehmet Yüce, Osman Bayraktar, Caner Günay, Umut Ersoy, Çağlar Zorlu, Aytaç Ataç, and Erdem Karadeniz, were acquitted of the charges brought against them.
FILES OF 2 DEFENDANTS SEPARATED
On the other hand, it was decided to separate the case file opened against defendants Serdar Öktem and Mustafa Ensar Aykal for "aiding in premeditated murder," and additionally for Aykal regarding "unlawfully obtaining and disseminating personal data." The reason cited for this was the need to write to the USA to request the phone passwords of the defendants in order to examine their mobile phones.