US closes Sinan Ateş file: Lawyer demands destruction

It has emerged that in the response letter regarding the mobile phones of lawyer Serdar Öktem, a defendant in the assassination case of former Idealist Hearths (Ülkü Ocakları) President Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sinan Ateş, and former Ankara Murder Bureau Chief Commissioner Mustafa Ensar Aykal—which were sent to the US because they could not be opened due to the defendants not providing their passwords—it was stated that Turkey's requests had been fulfilled, adding, "Therefore, we are closing our file on this matter." The letter also included the note: "Closing our file will not limit our authority to take appropriate measures to extend or lift the confidentiality order." It was learned that the Ankara 32nd High Criminal Court, which is hearing the case, opened and examined the 1 flash drive sent in a sealed envelope attached to the letter, drew up a report stating that "it contained encrypted digital programs," and decided that this flash drive and two copies made of it should be kept in the court safe.

It had been announced that the cover letter sent by the US Department of Justice Criminal Division to the Ministry of Justice Directorate General for Foreign Relations and EU Affairs on July 24, which reached the court in recent days, and the accompanying flash drive were not given to the parties' lawyers upon the instruction of the Court President.

However, it is understood that during this process, the Court decided to first make two copies of the flash drive and keep them in the court safe along with the original.

The report drawn up by the Court regarding this on August 14 stated the following:

"When the 1 blue-colored flash drive of unknown brand, sent to our court in a sealed envelope attached to the US Department of Justice's letter dated July 24, 2025, and numbered ............ in English, was opened and examined by the court panel, it was seen that 'it contained encrypted digital programs,' and without any further examination, all files within the flash drive were copied separately onto two flash drives obtained from the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office Information Technology Directorate, and it was decided that a total of 3 flash drives (1 original, 2 copies) be kept in the court safe."

Following this, the Court had the English cover letter translated by an expert on August 18. As a result of the translation, it was seen that the letter from the US summarized the following:

"On October 16, 2024, a request for mutual legal assistance reached the US Central Authority Office of International Affairs. In the said letter, Turkish authorities requested that US authorities obtain records related to the line numbered .... ... .. .. from the company named Apple. The documents submitted by Apple in response to the request are attached... We bring to your attention that on June 29, 2025, a US court issued a decision approving our application to obtain these documents until otherwise ruled by the court. The content of this decision also includes a summary of the incident that is the basis of the request and the necessary court order. Our records show that this request has now been fully fulfilled. Therefore, for the reasons stated above and because there is no other information, we are closing our file on this matter. Closing our file will not limit our authority to take appropriate measures to extend or lift the confidentiality order."

On the other hand, Aziz Bingöl, the lawyer for former Murder Bureau Chief Commissioner Mustafa Ensar Aykal, made the following requests from the Court after the copying of the flash drive:

"Since there is no data related to the murder in the copies that the court has placed in the safe, they should be destroyed... If the court refers the matter to an expert for examination, considering the suspicions, illegalities, and wrongdoings during the investigation phase, the chosen expert should not be a person currently serving in the police force... No data unrelated to the murder should be included in the potential report to be prepared... If the expert adds data unrelated to the murder to the report, the said report should not be uploaded to the file or UYAP (National Judiciary Informatics System) and should be destroyed..."

Müyesser YILDIZ

August 20, 2025

News Source: 12punto