Müyesser Yıldız reports... Fingerprint crisis in the Sinan Ateş case: Missing shell casings on the agenda

Müyesser YILDIZ

The trial regarding the murder of former Ülkü Ocakları President Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sinan Ateş continued. At the end of yesterday's hearing, the presiding judge announced that the gendarmerie had filed a report stating that hitman Eray Özyağcı had made a gun gesture with his hand toward journalists Murat Ağırel, Barış Pehlivan, and Timur Soykan, saying, "DHKP-C members, we will see you."

In the 8th session of the trial, which is being held at the Ankara 32nd High Criminal Court in the Sincan Prison campus with 22 defendants, 12 of whom are in custody, the defendants and their lawyers presented their defenses against the prosecutor's opinion on the merits.

While one of the non-custodial defendants, Alper Atay, requested his acquittal, former Homicide Bureau Chief Mustafa Ensar Baykal stated that he had no involvement in this murder and said the following regarding the murder investigation and his relationship with Ülkü Ocakları executive Tolgahan Demirbaş:

"Let the Ministries of Interior and Justice appoint police and civil inspectors to examine the Sinan Ateş murder investigation file; if there is anyone with intent or negligence, let the necessary actions be taken. All of my administrative superiors are aware of my contact with Tolgahan Demirbaş. I said, 'I know this man.' The prosecutors were also aware."

After the defendants' defenses were completed, the proceedings moved on to the statements of their lawyers.

'WEAPONS SURRENDERED 7 HOURS LATER'

Hitman Eray Özyağcı's lawyer, Zeynettin Ertürk, criticized the investigation and trial process, asking, "How are we supposed to make a defense and try to refute the allegations with these gaps?" While implying that Sinan Ateş might have been shot by his companion Selman Bozkurt, Attorney Ertürk also said the following:

"You are a relative; your first concern cannot be to collect the casings and destroy the weapons. There is a wounded person lying on the ground; your concern should be to help them. What was your concern? That the weapons shouldn't be lost. Let them be lost. Your concern should be the deceased lying on the ground. For some reason, they don't even seem to care about that. The weapons are surrendered 7 hours later. What do you mean 'let's surrender them'? You are law enforcement; should they have said 'okay, I'm waiting,' or should they have gone and found them? The place where they were left is an office 5 minutes away. Who surrenders them? The secretary."

Cemal Kılıç, the lawyer for Vedat Balkaya, who took the hitman Eray Özyağcı to the crime scene by motorcycle, stated that his client was used.

Emine Tosun, the lawyer for the instigator Doğukan Çep, also made the following allegations:

"Both the lawyers and Sinan Ateş's friends stated that Eray Özyağcı first shot at Ateş's torso and that he fell face down. The footage is very clear; the first shot is fired at his feet. Let's assume the first shot was fired at the torso. So what? Did Eray Özyağcı say, 'Wait, let me shoot him in the feet too'? The witnesses changed their initial statements. A criminal complaint should be filed against them for perjury. The statements of the two witnesses are also different. Ahmet Kekiç said he asked Selman Bozkurt to take the weapons. Selman Bozkurt, however, said, 'I didn't say such a thing.'"

Attorney Tosun said, "I have never mentioned this until now. This is one of the key points of the file," and then explained the following:

"Both Selman Bozkurt and Ahmet Keçek stated in their testimonies and in your presence that they performed ablution before the incident occurred and then went to the mosque. In other words, they all got water on their hands. It is said that Sinan Ateş did not use a weapon at the scene."

However, the forensic report states that there is gunshot residue on the palm and back of Sinan Ateş's right and left hands. If there is residue only on the palm of a hand, it could have been transferred from somewhere else.

But if there is gunshot residue on both the palm and the back of the hand, this absolutely means that a shot was fired with that hand. Two possibilities emerge. One; Sinan Ateş used a weapon at the scene and that weapon was not surrendered."

It was removed from the scene. Second; contrary to what Selman Bozkurt described, Sinan Ateş did not give the gun to Selman before the Friday prayer. He gave it during the moment of the conflict, and while handing it over, Selman Bozkurt touched the trigger and wounded Sinan Ateş.

Thus, since both touched the same weapon, gunshot residue was found on both of their hands. Now, to narrow these possibilities down to one, let us look at the fingerprint analysis regarding the weapons surrendered by Selman Bozkurt and Ahmet Keçik. But we cannot look. Why, you ask? Because for some reason, the prosecutor did not conduct a fingerprint analysis on these surrendered weapons.

Think about it, a forensic incident occurs. The weapons are removed from the scene, but they do not even suspect whether the surrendered weapons are the ones from the scene, and they do not perform a fingerprint analysis. Furthermore, there is a possibility in the file that not only the weapons but also the shell casings were removed from the scene. Because the number of casings found in the evidence and the number of those surrendered do not match; there are missing casings.”

HOW MANY PHONES DID SINAN ATEŞ HAVE

Attorney Emine Tosun, who stated that she agreed with the complainants' assertion that “there is a dark force over this file” and alleged that this dark force is persistently trying to pull the file toward political areas to make her client's actions appear different than they were, made the following claims after stating that Doğukan Çep had spoken with Sinan Ateş via FaceTime:

“I am persistently asking whether Sinan Ateş had only one phone. Because currently, a record of Sinan Ateş speaking with my client does not appear in the expert report.

Although the examination of the phone was limited to WhatsApp. We do not know what kind of concern was felt while the FaceTime conversations of all other defendants were being examined. Sinan Ateş's FaceTime conversations were not examined.

My client also says that he spoke via FaceTime and that Sinan Ateş had two phones. Everyone says he had one phone. If he had only one phone and it was surrendered, the transcript of the WhatsApp messages on this phone is also in the file. Why did the correspondence that complainant Ayşe Ateş presented in appendix 54 of her statement, which she said was between Sinan Ateş and Ömer Çağrı Özdemir, not appear in the report at the court? According to the report, no such correspondence exists. This shows that Sinan Ateş had another phone that was not brought to the court, just like the weapons, and was removed from the scene.”

PERHAPS HE WAS TRULY INTENDED TO BE KILLED 

Attorney Emine Tosun, who argued that Doğukan Çep should be punished for incitement to cause injury, concluded her statement as follows:

“Perhaps Sinan Ateş was truly intended to be killed or intimidated. However, my client's action is independent of this. We do not accept that the intent of individuals who have no connection to my client be placed on my client's shoulders. My client's incident is separate. Perhaps he was truly intended to be killed, and my client carried out an action before that; we cannot know. We do not accept that threats and plans that have no connection to my client be placed on my client's shoulders.”

DOĞUKAN'S SIN

Murat Ofli, the lawyer for defendant Tolgahan Demirbaş, also stated that let alone incitement, it is not even a question of Demirbaş having assisted, and said, “They want to place Doğukan's sin on us. Yet they have no connection whatsoever. Their communication is zero. The prosecution has taken the easy way out.” he said.

Following the completion of the defense statements by the lawyers of 6 defendants in the morning session, a lunch break was given in the hearing. Former CHP Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu also observed the hearing.

The afternoon session of the hearing began with the statement of Alp Kemal Gözel, the lawyer for Aşkın Mert Gelenbey, a former special operations police officer who brought the hitman Eray Özyağcı to Ankara.

Attorney Gözel, who accused the media of claiming that his client brought Özyağcı to kill Sinan Ateş as if a verdict had already been reached, stated that there was no evidence, testimony, or statement regarding this claim, and that they were trying to prove the non-existence of such a fact.

WAS IT BECAUSE HE DECEIVED TOLGAHAN? 

Sümeyra Evren, the lawyer for Çağlar Zorlu, who is alleged to have provided address and location information to Tolgahan Demirbaş and to be a member of the MİT (National Intelligence Organization), explained that Çağlar is not a MİT member but someone who has been working at the Ministry of Energy since 2015, and that the two location pieces of information he provided to brush off Tolgahan Demirbaş were fake and dated 9 months before the murder, asking, "Is he going to be punished because he deceived Tolgahan?"

THE DECISION TO BE RENDERED IS NULL AND VOID

Oğuzhan Bilgin, the lawyer for Attorney Serdar Öktem, also stated the following:

"There is an indictment that is null and void. Therefore, both the prosecutor's opinion and the decision to be rendered are null and void. We have seen some political figures sitting in the complainant seats. Let's say there was no room in the July hearing. But we see that they have insistently sat in the same section this week as well. This is an element of pressure and an absolute ground for reversal. The other day, an unidentified person sitting in the complainant section stood up and cursed at Eray Özyağcı. Procedural errors that we watch with astonishment are being made in a file that is on Turkey's agenda. On what evidence has Serdar Öktem been detained for 2 years? Many people here are detained unjustly and unlawfully. It has become essential for Serdar Öktem to be released immediately and urgently today."

Attorney Batuhan Bastı stated that it was not appropriate for the Prosecutor to laugh while Serdar Öktem and other defendants were making their defense, noting that he condemned the Prosecutor and said, "He is still continuing to laugh right now."

Betül Yüksel and İsmail Küçük, lawyers for Ülkü Ocakları Deputy President Emre Yüksel, stated that an attempt was being made to frame Emre Yüksel in this case, saying, "We know who wrote this script, but we don't know why it was written."

Yüksel's lawyers also claimed that this case, which has captured public interest, has been subjected to intense manipulation and that the public has been deliberately misinformed from the very beginning.

Egehan Poyrazoğlu, the lawyer for Erdem Karadeniz, for whom the prosecutor has requested an acquittal, also directed the following accusations at the Ateş family:

"I will call her Selda Ateş, because she is not worthy of the title of a lady. She cursed everyone here and said they did it for money. The pain you are experiencing does not give you the right to insult innocent people. I respect your search for justice. But the reason you are causing innocent people to remain in prison by taking the pro-government media behind you is public pressure."

After the defense statements of the 20 defendants were completed, today's session was adjourned to continue tomorrow, while the Presiding Judge stated that, in accordance with the minutes taken, it was decided to file a criminal complaint with the Ankara West Chief Public Prosecutor's Office against the hitman Eray Özyağcı for threatening and insulting journalists.

News Source: 12punto