The two key figures in the case of the assassination of Andrei Karlov, the Russian Ambassador to Turkey who was shot and killed in December 2016, claimed during their trial on Tuesday that their previous testimonies confessing links to the murder were given under
torture.
Huseyin Kotuce, who is imprisoned on charges of involvement in the murder of Karlov,
denied all the charges against him. Kotuce claimed that he was forced to sign his previous
testimony under torture.
“I was living my life normally until February 28, 2017, when my car was intercepted while
heading home from work. I was handcuffed and put in a black van with a bag over my head,”
said Kotuce.
He said he only understood later he had been abducted by the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) and that he had undergone the torture while in MIT custody.
The prosecution claims that Kotuce had asked for information from the MIT agent, Vehbi
Kursat Akalin, about the Russian Ambassador before the murder.
The prosecution cited the testimony of Akalin, who also claimed that his testimony was given under torture.
Accused by the prosecution of sharing information about the security of Karlov, Akalin
denied all charges, saying that he did not share any kind of confidential information with the
third parties. He claimed he had undergone torture while he was being held in police
custody.
“I was tortured during the interrogation. They showed me the interrogation videos of two
MIT agents who were abducted and tortured like me. They threatened to take me to the
torture chambers operated by MIT’s special operations unit,” said Akalin.
He also said that he was investigating the murder of a Chechen militant in Istanbul in 2015, as he was in the Russia department while working for MIT.
Emphasizing the accusations of being a spy, Akalin claimed, “The real spy is the prosecutor
himself for sharing sensitive information about me and my family with the Russians.”
Akalin was referring to the Russian investigative team who arrived in Turkey in the wake of the shooting, to assist the probe conducted by Turkish authorities.
The assassination of Andrei Karlov
Andrei Karlov was gunned down by Mevlut Mert Altintas, a police officer killed during the
shootout with the police in the aftermath of the attack, while giving a speech in an art
gallery. Cameras had been recording the ambassador’s speech and therefore recorded the
moment Karlov was shot, as well as the aftermath.
“Allahu Akbar (God is the greatest). We are the descendants of those who supported the
Prophet Muhammad for jihad. Do not forget Aleppo, do not forget Syria. We die in Aleppo, you die here,” shouted Aslantas in Arabic and Turkish after the shooting and before he was
shot and killed by Turkish security forces.
Russia and the United States pointed to the al-Qaeda off-shoots involved in the Syrian Civil War in the wake of the attack.
However, the Turkish government followed a different course by blaming the faith-based Gulen Movement, led by US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen who is also accused by Ankara of instigating the failed coup of July 2016.
The Gulen movement is outlawed in Turkey as the government cites it as a terrorist
organization. More than 30,000 people are currently imprisoned in Turkey on charges of
having ties to the group.
More than a dozen alleged cases of abduction were reported in Turkey since the failed 2016
coup, all of them involving individuals prosecuted for having links to the movement.
A report presented to the Council of Europe includes testimonies of two alleged victims of
abduction, who say that they were taken to an extrajudicial detainment facility where they
were held for months, and were subjected to various kinds of torture, including sexual
abuse.
Russian ambassador’s assassin watched al Qaeda video before striking
The post Two imprisoned for Karlov assassination deny charges, citing torture appeared first on IPA NEWS.
from IPA NEWS https://ipa.news/2019/03/26/two-imprisoned-for-karlov-assassination-deny-charges-citing-torture/
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