'Hablemitoğlu’s killer is walking around out there!': It had become a reason for a motion to recuse

In today's session of the trial held at the Ankara 28th High Criminal Court, the sole detained defendant Nuri Gökhan Bozkır and Enver Altaylı, who is a convict in another case, connected via SEGBİS from Sincan Prison, while non-detained defendants Levent Göktaş, Tarkan Mumcuoğlu, Fikret Emek, Mehmet Narin, and Aydın Köstem were present in the courtroom.

At the beginning of the hearing, the Presiding Judge asked for the parties' opinions on abandoning the testimony of two individuals who had been decided to be heard as witnesses, as they could not be located. Following the statements received, the testimony of these witnesses was abandoned.

Meanwhile, upon the failure of the SEGBİS system in the hall, the Presiding Judge asked for another hall to be arranged, saying, "Is there anyone else holding a hearing today, the first day of the new year, besides me?" Therefore, the hearing was adjourned for a while.

It Had Become a Reason for a Motion to Recuse

When the proceedings moved to receiving the statements and requests of the parties, Ersan Barkın, the lawyer for the Hablemitoğlu family, announced that their objection to the "Decision of Non-Prosecution" regarding the investigation of the suspicious individuals who followed Hablemitoğlu at his conference in Eskişehir and at Migros had been concluded, and that the Ankara 9th Criminal Judgeship of Peace had lifted the non-prosecution decision, stating the following:

"The file took on a completely different content with the interim decision taken at the release hearing in May 2023. We encountered video recordings that we saw had been in the file for over 20 years but had not been evaluated. In these images, there are others we identified in addition to the 5 suspects identified by the expert. We want these individuals to be identified and their relationship with the defendants to be investigated."

The indictment and trial prosecutor Zafer Ergün requested that the non-prosecution decision be examined and a reasonable time be given for the investigation to proceed, while also providing an opinion for the continuation of Nuri Gökhan Bozkır's detention and the judicial control measures for the other defendants, such as a ban on leaving the province.

To fully understand this new development, let us summarize with these reminders:

In the session on May 18, 2023, the Ankara 28th High Criminal Court, following the release of all defendants who were detained at that time due to official records brought into the file and the proof through documents and witnesses that Tarkan Mumcuoğlu, who was alleged to be the triggerman, was in Kazakhstan on the date of the murder, decided to "file a criminal complaint with the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office for the identification of the primary perpetrator who pulled the trigger in the incident, and if this perpetrator is identified, to determine their connections with the defendants in our file or with other individuals if there were any others involved in the incident."

However, the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office issued a "Decision of Non-Prosecution" on this matter on November 24, 2023. The signature under the decision in question belonged to the indictment and trial prosecutor Zafer Ergün.

Meanwhile, Ersan Barkın, the lawyer for the Hablemitoğlu family, filed a motion to recuse the court panel due to this interim decision. Attorney Barkın later applied to the 9th Criminal Judgeship of Peace and requested that the non-prosecution decision be lifted. The 9th Criminal Judgeship of Peace accepted the objection and lifted the non-prosecution decision.

Bozkır Was Friends with Colani

Returning to the hearing; the defendants, when asked for their requests, argued that they had no connection to the Hablemitoğlu assassination and requested that their judicial controls be lifted and that they be acquitted.

The sole detained defendant of the case, Nuri Gökhan Bozkır, used expressions such as "flustered" for the prosecutor and "lying journalist" for one of the witnesses of the case, journalist Abdurrahman Şimşek, saying, "According to concrete evidence, I should not be detained even for 5 minutes. Have mercy, have mercy, have mercy." While mentioning the sentence he received in the 'Onion Trucks' case heard in Şanlıurfa, he made the following claims:

"Zihni Çakır says why I am being tried. I am being retaliated against because I exposed the MIT Trucks treason. If Zihni Çakır is lying, a lawsuit should be filed against him. İrfan Fidan filed a lawsuit against me for slander, and I was acquitted. In 2015, I was friends with HTS Leader Ahmet al-Shara, that is, Colani. Because of my friendship with Colani, they imprisoned me in the Onion Trucks case. He has now become a head of state, and I am receiving a sentence as the person who sold them weapons. The prosecutor who prepared the indictment for the Onion Trucks case also turned out to be a FETÖ member and was dismissed. The work I did for the interests of my country returned to me as a lawsuit. If I had a small share in protecting the interests of my country, how happy for me. But being tried for such a murder is hard for me to bear."

Clarified Images Hidden Since 2017

After the defendants, the statements of their lawyers were taken. Aydın Köstem's lawyer, Emre Tekin, explained that the Migros images, which were sent to the USA in 2017 and clarified, and which Prosecutor Zafer Ergün said "did not exist," were finally given to them, but because the CD was stapled with the envelope, 79 photos came out instead of 120, and he requested that the CD be examined or brought again.

The Presiding Judge replied, "We will fix that."

Mehmet Narin's lawyer, Hülya Elmadağlı, also said that the Migros images had emerged, that the possibility of other suspects would be investigated, and that it was understood that these defendants were not the perpetrators.

Tarkan Mumcuoğlu's lawyer, Mehmet Eren Turan, requested that a decision be made to wait for the result of the investigation to be conducted following the lifting of the non-prosecution decision, and noted the following:

"These images were already in the file. It is the court's duty to identify these individuals whose descriptions have been determined. Necip Hablemitoğlu’s killer is walking around out there. Finding this is the court's historical duty. The prosecution wrote in the indictment that these defendants followed him, even though they knew who was following Hablemitoğlu from the images at their disposal. But unfortunately, this prosecutor will also conduct this investigation."

Ali Soykan, one of Levent Göktaş's lawyers, compared the fact that the prosecutor, whose "indictment is falling apart," would conduct the investigation to "entrusting the lamb to the wolf," and spoke as follows:

"The Eskişehir images have been in the file for 20 years. We informed you that the prosecutor secretly took them from the Judicial Repository. Did you keep a record of what the prosecutor did regarding this? We do not know if there was any tampering with the digital files; these should be investigated. Again, the prosecutor said, 'There are no improved images.' But we revealed that there were in 2017. While this evidence was there, the Prosecutor investigated other suspects; he made mind-boggling accusations, such as that Levent Göktaş planned this murder with FETÖ, which set a trap for him in Ergenekon. We went after the real killers and found these images. Let's see what will disappear in the new investigation file to be prepared."

Attorney Hüseyin Ersöz also said, "Unfortunately, the material facts in this file have been bent and twisted. I wish these perpetrators had been identified when this political assassination was committed, or that there was a legal effort today. You cannot conduct this case with perceptions."

Zihni Çakır Wrote the Script, Bozkır Played the Extra

Nuri Gökhan Bozkır's lawyer, Emrah Yücel, pointed out that there were great oddities and strangeness in the file and said:

"This situation is a betrayal of Necip Hablemitoğlu's cherished memory and the Turkish Nation. Nuri Gökhan Bozkır was not brought via Interpol - he still appears to be abroad. When Nuri compensated for his mistake and told everything he knew, the prosecutor started to panic. My client did not flee from this file. He did not go to sign in only when an arrest warrant was issued for him in the Şanlıurfa case. But the court, as a result of the perception in the media, issued an arrest warrant immediately without waiting for the hearing. Maybe he would have come. Anyway, I asked him to surrender, and he said, 'Which justice should I trust to come?' He did not flee, and he did not leave Ankara. If he wanted to, he could have gone; he had that capability."

Bozkır's other lawyer, Hacer Ural, said, "We saw that the evidence was hidden in this file. Yes, my client made a mistake, a scenario was put forward; but the one who wrote it is Zihni Çakır. He made Bozkır play as an extra. Who is Zihni Çakır? The person working with the prosecutor on the file. The prosecutor also described Zihni Çakır as 'law enforcement.' Now the tortures in Syria are being talked about. Forget the tortures in Syria, look at Nuri Gökhan Bozkır. He saw more than the torture Assad did. I am not requesting his release. I just want you to write the justification for why you are not releasing him, point by point," she said.

After the statements were completed, the Presiding Judge announced that it had been decided to continue the detention of Nuri Gökhan Bozkır and the judicial control measure of a ban on leaving the province for the other defendants, and that a letter would be written to the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office for the procedures regarding the decision to lift the non-prosecution to be carried out "urgently" and for the court to be informed about the result, while other requests were rejected. The hearing was adjourned to April 21.

Müyesser YILDIZ

January 2, 2025