New arrest request in the Gülistan Doku case

With the appointment of Ebru Cansu as the Tunceli Chief Public Prosecutor in June 2024 and her taking over the file, significant developments have occurred in the investigation into the disappearance of Gülistan Doku. Under Chief Prosecutor Cansu's direction, a special JASAT team was formed, and License Plate Recognition System (PTS) and City Security Management System (KGYS) footage from across the city regarding the period when Doku disappeared was re-examined. Not only main arteries but a total of 700 hours of new footage from 70 different cameras were included in the evidence file. In the footage, Gülistan Doku's steps immediately before her disappearance were tracked minute by minute in an attempt to shed light on the incident.

COMPREHENSIVE OPERATIONS AND ARRESTS

With the investigation being converted into a murder case, a total of 17 people were detained in operations carried out on April 14, 17, and 24. Among those arrested are Mustafa Türkay Sonel, the son of the then-Tunceli Governor Tuncay Sonel, and Erdoğan Elaldı, a former employee of the Provincial Special Administration who was identified as the last person to have contact with Doku. Many individuals were sent to prison for crimes including "intentional killing," "concealing and destroying evidence of a crime," and "plunder." At the same time, red notices have been issued for individuals mentioned in the missing person file, some of whom are abroad.

ALLEGATIONS OF MANIPULATION IN HEALTH AND CAMERA RECORDS

Another point of note within the scope of the investigation was the deletion of evidence related to health records and security cameras in the file. For this reason, the then-Chief Physician of Tunceli State Hospital, Çağdaş Özdemir, was arrested on charges of "spoiling, destroying, or concealing an official document." Similar accusations apply to hospital staff released under judicial control and employees responsible for the camera systems at Munzur University.

NEW ARREST REQUEST

The Doku family's lawyer, Ali Çimen, has filed a new request for the arrest of U.A., a friend of Mustafa Türkay Sonel who was released under judicial control. Lawyer Çimen stated that U.A. is of critical importance to the file and made the following remarks:

"On December 27, 2019, the most critical day of our file, our secret witness 'February' testified that the suspect Mustafa, the fugitive suspect Umut, and the suspect U.A. were at the Youth Center and that they committed an act of sexual assault against the victim at that time. This statement was also supported by HTS data. While the suspect U.A. tried to save himself in his statement, he also admitted that he was in the courtyard of the Youth Center on the day of the sexual assault in a way that could be favorable to the main suspect Mustafa. He said Mustafa was with him. However, they attributed their presence there to a different reason. These perpetrators have been condemned in the eyes of society, and society is now waiting for progress in this file and for us to reach Gülistan. In this direction, we have made a request. We made the request in writing. The suspect wanted to cause great harm to our file by making a statement contrary to the truth. Both in terms of saving himself and by showing our main suspect as if he were outside the incident, he said, 'he was with me, but our reason for being there was different.' At a very critical point, he caused great harm to our file. Since the witnesses have not yet been heard, the possibility of him pressuring the witnesses is very high. For this reason, we requested that the judicial control decision regarding U.A. be converted into an arrest measure because it is insufficient."

SEARCH EFFORTS CONTINUE

In order to determine the fate of Gülistan Doku, a special team of 30 people consisting of JAK and JASAT teams is still continuing systematic search efforts in various regions using underground imaging devices. With new evidence and witness statements emerging during the course of the investigation, the legal struggle to clarify the incident continues.