Witness who identified Sinan Ateş assassination gunman infuriates judge by claiming 'I was high'

12punto.com.tr Müyesser YILDIZ

C.Y., who had previously stated he saw the gunman Eray Özyağcı in Sapanca and identified him, claimed he could not remember his testimony or the identification during the trial for the assassination of former Ülkü Ocakları President Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sinan Ateş, which took place in the middle of Ankara 3.5 years ago. When C.Y. stated, "I was high because of the cellulosic thinner I was using at the time," the presiding judge reacted, saying, "Cellulosic thinner and varnish cause poisoning, but they do not make you drunk. The 'I was high' act is not credible. Do not keep saying 'I was high'."

The trial continued following the merger of the main case with the files of former Ankara Murder Bureau Chief Mustafa Ensar Aykal and the late lawyer Serdar Öktem, who was killed in Istanbul last October, as well as the case of 8 defendants accused of "illegally obtaining personal data and shielding a criminal" within the scope of the Sinan Ateş assassination investigation.

While the Ateş family and their lawyers were present at the fifth session of the trial held at the Ankara 32nd High Criminal Court today, none of the defendants attended. The hearing, which was also observed by IYI Party Deputy Chairman and Bursa MP Selçuk Türkoğlu, was overseen by a temporary panel as the court president and prosecutor had been reassigned in the latest decree.

IDENTIFICATION RECORD CRISIS

After the court president announced that the expert report regarding the defendants' digital devices had arrived, C.Y. was heard as a witness via SEGBIS from Istanbul. C.Y. explained that he was doing the varnishing work for the bungalow houses in Sapanca belonging to Recep Küçükturan, one of the defendants accused of hiding the gunman Eray Özyağcı, and that he was a distant relative of Küçükturan. When the court president reminded him that in his initial statement he had asked Recep Küçükturan's brother, Fatih Küçükturan, about the person with the bandaged arm and strange appearance he saw with Recep Küçükturan, and that Fatih had replied, "He escaped from prison. He is from Digor," and that he had subsequently identified this person from the photos shown to him, C.Y. replied, "I don't know. I don't remember. They showed me some pictures. I don't see very clearly anyway, I am a diabetic. My head was spinning anyway, I was like a drunk, I am not clear."

When the prosecutor took the floor to ask questions and requested the identification record from the court bailiff, a minor crisis occurred. While the prosecutor was heard asking, "Is it not there?", the court president also spoke with the bailiff for a while.

Meanwhile, Fatih Güneş, one of the lawyers for the Ateş family, asked C.Y., "In which month did the conversation about being from Kars Digor take place? How long after did they have you perform the identification?" After C.Y. said, "It was autumn, the weather was cold," he again stated, "I was high that night. They took me to the Sapanca police station a week later. I am already scared." When Attorney Güneş requested that the identification record be brought, the court president said, "We cannot find it right now, we are looking for it."

Attorney Şeyda Şahin also asked C.Y. if he had a report regarding his mental health. C.Y. answered, "No."

Recep Küçükturan, who gave his statement at the hearing held on March 4, had explained that he did not know Özyağcı at all and only knew him by name because they lived in the same neighborhood, while also stating that C.Y. was his cousin and describing his previous statement as a "cold joke." While Küçükturan also claimed that C.Y. was not of sound mind, his lawyer argued that C.Y.'s statement was not taken in accordance with the procedure, that only Eray Özyağcı's photo was shown during the identification, effectively forcing him to say it, and requested that C.Y.'s statement be taken again and that he be referred to the Forensic Medicine Institute after being heard.

''THE STATE KNOWS THE KILLER''

As the hearing continued, the defense lawyers requested the removal of judicial control measures for their clients and an acquittal, while Ayşe Ateş, the wife of Sinan Ateş, who was asked for her statement, stated that she had nothing to say.

Sinan Ateş's sister, Sevda Ateş Yörükoğlu, spoke as follows:

"While people who have committed no crimes are given 3-4 years in prison, those who kill people receive no punishment. I want to see the killers receive punishment. Let all the accomplices and supporters see it. The inscription 'Justice is the foundation of property' should not just hang there. Find my brother's killer. The state, which knows everything, also knows my brother's killer. Let what is necessary be done."

Ateş's other sister, Selma Ateş Kazancı, reacted to C.Y.'s statement by saying, "He uses the varnish work as an excuse. Since he has been doing this job for a long time, he should be used to it and should remember the statement he gave and the identification he made. There is no end to this, there is no escaping justice." She then emphasized that Ülkü Ocakları executives Burak Kılıç and Suat Yılmazzobu, who are defendants in the case, had people follow them, but they vanished into thin air in Ankara and did not come to the hearing. Kazancı said, "If there is justice, they must come. Only those who hold the gun are not the guilty ones; these are at least as guilty as them. We know that our lives are not safe, but we continue to fight fearlessly. They have no respect for the court either. They should be tried under arrest. As long as they are not arrested, they will continue to commit crimes."

When the court president asked Sinan Ateş's mother, Saniye Ateş, if she had anything to say, she replied, "There is a lot, but there is nothing."

Şeyda Şahin, one of the lawyers for the Ateş family, stated that they could not understand what the expert report regarding the defendants' digital devices was investigating and what it failed to find, noting that it was not a report but merely an inventory record and could not be taken as a basis for a verdict. She requested a new report from a panel of experts from universities and also requested that the defendants in the merged file be heard as "aiders and abettors," adding:

"The identification record belonging to C.Y. was not among the documents we received. I hope you have it. After it is obtained, the witness should be heard again. Some defendants, especially Burak Kılıç, persistently do not comply with judicial control provisions. He did not even provide an excuse for his violation on April 13. The excuses they provide are not sincere either. Especially, a decision should be made to arrest Burak Kılıç; otherwise, the judicial control provisions should be tightened."

Attorney Fatih Güneş also requested that they wait for C.Y.'s identification record to be found, saying, "Since he is making statements to save the defendants, his statement in the identification record should be taken as the basis. Because we think his police statement was changed because he is related to the defendants. There is only one victim in this case, Sinan Ateş. But in the expert report, 'victim' was written for Serdar Öktem; this is a lack of seriousness."

Upon Attorney Güneş's request to wait for the identification record, the court president explained, "We will take a break after the statements. The bailiff went to look for it," and while adjourning the hearing, he said, "Let's take a break and look at this record. We might not have the chance to find the witness again," and requested that the witness be kept waiting on SEGBIS.

''THE SUBSTANCE THAT THINNER USERS GET HIGH ON''

After a 45-minute break, the court president stated that C.Y.'s identification record had been found, read the statement he had given earlier, and asked if it was correct. C.Y. replied:

"I don't know how I gave the statement. My head was not in the right place. I had used a substance for the first time in the varnish job that day, it had hit me hard."

After the photos in the identification record were shown to C.Y. by trying to clarify them in front of the SEGBIS camera, the court president asked which of these he had identified and which of these was the person he saw with Recep Küçükturan. When C.Y. said, "I don't remember, I didn't see. These are not them," the court president commented, "If he doesn't remember the statement, he doesn't remember the photos either."

When asked what the new substance he used that day was and how much he used, C.Y. said, "Cellulosic thinner. The one that thinner users get high on. I used two cans."

While the lawyers objected to these statements, saying, "He doesn't remember anything, but he remembers this," the member judge reacted as follows:

"Cellulosic thinner or varnish causes poisoning, but it does not make you drunk. Did you get a report that you were poisoned that day? The 'I was high' act is not credible. There is a panel here that knows the business. Do not keep saying 'I was high'."

While the audience applauded the judge for these words, Attorney Fatih Güneş requested that a criminal complaint be filed against C.Y. for perjury.

After the statements were completed, the prosecutor requested that the judicial control measures for the defendants be continued; that a new expert report be obtained after the lawyers submit their written statements on this matter; that the criminal complaint against C.Y. be evaluated together with the verdict at the end of the trial; and that the request for the defendants' additional statements be rejected as they are being tried for the acts in the indictment.

The court decided to continue the judicial control measures for the defendants and reject the other requests, adjourning the hearing to November 18.

News Source: 12punto