Expert report revealed! It wasn't them who followed Hablemitoğlu

Another significant development has occurred in the case of academic and author Assoc. Prof. Dr. Necip Hablemitoğlu, who was murdered in front of his home 22 years ago. The expert appointed by the court reported that there is no resemblance between the individuals thought to have followed Hablemitoğlu in Eskişehir and Ankara before the murder and the 7 defendants currently on trial.

In the indictment prepared by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office after the case remained unsolved for 20 years, it was alleged that the murder was planned by Fetullah Gülen and the so-called Turkey imam Mustafa Özcan, and carried out by the "Mustafa Levent Göktaş criminal organization," which consisted of former Special Forces personnel. In this context, former Special Forces members Tarkan Mumcuoğlu, Nuri Gökhan Bozkır, Fikret Emek, and Mehmet Narin, as well as Enver Altaylı and Aydın Köstem, were arrested, with Levent Göktaş at the forefront. However, after Tarkan Mumcuoğlu, who was alleged to be the gunman, proved that he was in Kazakhstan on the date of the murder, it was decided at the 12th hearing of the case that all defendants would be released under judicial control.

One of the important pieces of evidence regarding the outcome of the case, which is being heard at the Ankara 28th High Criminal Court, was the footage of Hablemitoğlu from the conference he attended in Eskişehir four days before he was killed, and from the Migros store where he was shopping just before he was murdered on December 18.

The court decided to investigate whether the two individuals thought to have followed Hablemitoğlu at the Migros store were also present at the Eskişehir conference and whether these individuals bore any resemblance to the defendants.

In the report sent to the court before the hearing last July, the expert who examined the footage stated that the number of people thought to have followed Hablemitoğlu at the Migros store was not two, but three, and identified "suspect photos that are thought to show a physical resemblance" between these individuals and those who attended the conference in Eskişehir.

The expert stated that in order to determine whether these identified individuals were among the defendants, photos of the defendants from 2002 to the present day needed to be obtained.

At the hearing in July, the court decided that photos of the defendants from the years 2002-2004 should be requested from their personnel files at the Special Forces Command and from the Counter-Terrorism Department (TEM) and sent to the expert.

The expert, having completed the technical examination and sent it to the court today, reported that the defendants Tarkan Mumcuoğlu, Levent Göktaş, Nuri Gökhan Bozkır, Fikret Emek, Mehmet Narin, Enver Altaylı, and Aydın Köstem do not show any physical resemblance to the individuals at the Eskişehir conference and the Migros store.

The trial of the Hablemitoğlu case will continue on October 30.

Müyesser YILDIZ

October 17, 2024