Municipality gave 8,000 lira grocery card to Tengioğlu, who attacked Özgür Özel

According to the information obtained, the assailant Selçuk Tengioğlu, who was known to have killed 2 of his children and injured 2 others in 2004 and was released from prison on parole in 2020, had punched CHP Chairman Özel, who was attending a ceremony at the Atatürk Cultural Center (AKM) for Deputy Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey and DEM Party Istanbul MP Sırrı Süreyya Önder, who passed away in the hospital where he was being treated for a heart condition. 

The statement given to the police by Osman A., the operator of the hotel in Beyoğlu where the 66-year-old perpetrator who carried out the punch attack on Özel was staying, has emerged. 

In his statement to the police, the operator of the guesthouse, which operates on Kalyoncu Kulluğu Street in the Çukur neighborhood of Beyoğlu, stated that the assailant Selçuk Tengioğlu had been staying in a shared room for three people since February 23, 2024, that the 3 individuals in question had no connection to each other, and that one of the individuals was a foreign national who worked as a carpenter in Eminönü. 

Stating that the other person staying in the room on a rotating basis was a Turkish citizen and a student, Osman A. explained that Tengioğlu stayed at the guesthouse regularly, took breaks of 1-2 days very rarely, and usually left the guesthouse in the morning and returned in the evening. 

It was learned that the guesthouse operator said the assailant's financial situation was not very good, and therefore, upon his guidance, he requested assistance from the Beyoğlu Municipality, that municipal officials called the guesthouse, and that he told the officials over the phone that Selçuk Tengioğlu's financial situation was poor. It was noted that Osman A. stated that officials from the municipality came to the guesthouse, met with Selçuk Tengioğlu, and gave him 8 cards worth 1,000 TL each to be used for food and cleaning supplies at markets, and that in the following period, Selçuk Tengioğlu was called by municipal officials for aid purposes and they came to the guesthouse to hold meetings, but he had no information about the content of these meetings.

News Source: İHA