New development in the Ayhan Bora Kaplan case: Police knew Serdar Sertçelik had fled
Court records have revealed that the Ankara Police Department knew that Serdar Sertçelik, a defendant and secret witness in the Ayhan Bora Kaplan case, had been smuggled to Istanbul.
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New details have emerged regarding Serdar Sertçelik, a defendant and secret witness in the Ayhan Bora Kaplan criminal organization case, which has dominated Turkey's agenda and caused an earthquake within the Ankara Police Department.
Halk TV columnist İsmail Saymaz, in his article titled "They knew the secret witness had fled to Istanbul," shared new details regarding how Serdar Sertçelik was smuggled abroad while wearing an electronic monitoring tag.
"ANKARA POLICE KNEW SERTÇELİK HAD GONE TO ISTANBUL"
Saymaz stated, "Public officials issued a red notice to capture the secret witness whom they allowed to escape while he was under house arrest and wearing an electronic tag on his ankle. Now, they are trying to bring him back from Hungary. If the scandal had ended there, we could have dismissed it as the stupidity or incompetence of a few public officials. However, WhatsApp messages that entered the case file at the Ankara 13th Criminal Court of First Instance prove that the Ankara Police Department's Organized Crime Bureau knew that Sertçelik had gone to Istanbul."
The relevant section of Saymaz's article is as follows:
The then-Director of the Organized Crime Bureau, Kerem Gökay Öner, forwarded a message he received to his deputy, Şevket Demircan, on November 29, 2023, two days after Sertçelik's escape.
The message says:
“His father is taking him to Istanbul. There is a debt issue. Just so you know, brother.”
Öner then writes to Demircan:
“Serdar Sertçelik. On the way to Istanbul.”
Demircan replies, “Understood, brother.”
The Organized Crime Bureau allowed Sertçelik, who fled his home with an electronic tag after realizing he would be arrested for murder, to escape while knowing he had gone to Istanbul.
A THEATER OF SEARCHES
According to the indictment, Sertçelik, who left his home on November 27, 2023, stayed in Ankara until November 30.
He was not caught while he was in the capital.
He went to Istanbul on December 1.
He got off in the area in Şile where the bungalows belonging to his girlfriend, social media influencer Ece Ronay, were located.
He spent four days in Istanbul.
He fled abroad through illegal means on December 4, 'using a route that could not be clearly determined.'
The messages between Öner and Demircan dated December 1 reveal that a theater of searches was performed by the Organized Crime Bureau after the escape.
The correspondence is as follows:
Öner: Şevket, keep this in mind, let a team go to Serdar Sertçelik's house and draw up a report stating that he was searched for but not found, and let's send it to the courthouse.
Demircan: We sent it, brother.
Öner: Let's draw up and send a report stating that he was searched for from time to time.
Demircan: Okay.
While this correspondence was taking place, Sertçelik was in Istanbul and had not yet left Turkey. While they should have been searching for Sertçelik in Istanbul, they drew up reports by checking his house from time to time—which they knew was empty—pretending as if they were searching for him.