Kiğı
Kiğı ( ku, Gêxî, hy, Քղի, translit=Kʿġi) is a town and district of Bingöl Province in the Eastern Anatolia Region, Turkey, Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey. The mayor is Hikmet Özüağ (Justice and Development Party (Turkey), AKP). Th ...
) is a Turkish criminal convicted for murdering Council of State member
Mustafa Yücel Özbilgin
Mustafa Yücel Özbilgin (June 20, 1942 – May 17, 2006) was a Turkish supreme court magistrate, who was shot dead in the Turkish Council of State courtroom in Ankara, Turkey on May 17, 2006, by Alparslan Arslan.Cumhuriyet'' along with
Osman Yıldırım
Osman Yıldırım (born March 25, 1996) is a Turkish Greco-Roman wrestler competing in the 130 kg division of Greco-Roman wrestling. He is a member of the ASKİ Spor Club.
Career
Osman Yıldırım, competing in Greco-Roman wrestling 130 ki ...
, İsmail Sağır, and Erhan Timuroğlu. All of these events took place from 10–17 May 2006.
Biography
Arslan comes from a conservative family. He graduated from Marmara University's law school in 1998. Later on he met fellow Ergenekon suspect
Sedat Peker
Reis Sedat Peker (; born 26 June 1971) is a Turkish mafia boss and whistle-blower who has made various allegations about Turkish politicians and numerous government engagements in illegal activities through his own YouTube channel. He has describe ...
Muzaffer Tekin
Muzaffer Tekin (28 October 1950, in Çankırı – 1 April 2015) is a former member of Turkey's Special Warfare Department, and a suspect in the Ergenekon trials as well as the Turkish Council of State shooting. In August 2013 Tekin was sentenc ...
.
Council of State attack
On 17 May 2006, Arslan killed Council of State member Mustafa Yücel Özbilgin. His stated motive was that the Council disrespected the devout, citing alleged oppression of women who cover their hair; a wedge issue at the time. Allegations surfaced that this was a
false flag
A false flag operation is an act committed with the intent of disguising the actual source of responsibility and pinning blame on another party. The term "false flag" originated in the 16th century as an expression meaning an intentional misr ...
attack by neonationalists, and Arslan was recruited for the job.
After the attack, the newspaper and his family reported conflicting information over his motives, with progressives blaming conservatives and vice versa. His father, İdris Arslan, also made inconsistent statements to the press.
He was said to have been incited by retired captain
Muzaffer Tekin
Muzaffer Tekin (28 October 1950, in Çankırı – 1 April 2015) is a former member of Turkey's Special Warfare Department, and a suspect in the Ergenekon trials as well as the Turkish Council of State shooting. In August 2013 Tekin was sentenc ...
. When his arrest warrant was issued, Tekin attempted suicide. Also detained was major Zekeriya Öztürk. After recuperating, Tekin admitted knowing Arslan, and together attending a 2004 meeting of the neonationalist Association for the Union of Patriotic Forces ( tr, Vatansever Kuvvetler Güçbirliği Hareketi). Records indicated that the two had made 27 telephone calls between 2004-2006. Tekin said this was related to business they conducted at Doğuş Factoring, which Arslan was the legal counsel to.
It turned out the company's owner, Ayhan Parlak, had written Arslan a check (cheque) for 20,000 Lira before the attack. Parlak was detained for his. Both he and Arslan insisted the check was for legal services rendered. Records showed that Parlak called Tekin 63 times, general Veli Küçük three times, and Arslan 56 times—12 days before the attack.
After Tekin was released for lack of evidence, Arslan renounced his earlier statements that he had acted in a personal capacity, this time blaming his lawyer, Süleyman Esen. Arslan said that Esen and a sheikh they allegedly visited together, Salih Kurter, influenced him.
At one point, Arslan stated that his lawyer drugged him and gave him the bombs. Mehmet Taşdelen, the lawyer of another Ergenekon suspect, Emin Gürses, vouched for Esen; his childhood friend. According to Taşdelen, Arslan asked an orphan who washed cars called Osman Boz to stage the attack in return for 20,000 USD. Boz allegedly reported the proposition but did not appear as a witness because he was intimidated.
At his hearing, Arslan continued to make contradictory statements, and appeared mentally unstable, though he passed a health check.
In the meantime, the Ergenekon investigation began. The Ergenekon indictment alleges that there is a connection between numerous attacks in recent years. Moreover, the attacks are alleged to be planned by a group of neonationalist seeking to further discredit Islamists by staging attacks in their name.
In a petition to the Ankara court handling the case (the 11th High Criminal Court), suspect Osman Yıldırım wrote that the attack was initiated by
JİTEM
Jandarma İstihbarat ve Terörle Mücadele or Jandarma İstihbarat Teşkilatı (abbr. ''JİTEM'' or ''JİT''; English: "Gendarmerie Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism" or "Gendarmerie Intelligence Organization") is the unofficial and illegal intel ...
and neonationalists. The court disregarded the petition. Before the trial, he told his lawyer, Mehmet Ener, that Ergenekon made him carry out the attack, and Ener told him to save it for the trial. However, when the trial came, Yıldırım did not speak. Arslan was convicted of murder and 4 counts of attempted murder. He was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences plus an additional 60 years in prison.
The Ankara court requested evidence collected by the Ergenekon prosecutors, and they submitted a 550-page file. However, the file did not contain information that would have enabled the judge to establish a connection between the Council of State bombing and the other ones mentioned in the Ergenekon indictment. So the court concluded that the attack had indeed been carried out Islamists, as originally thought. After the verdict was given, Yıldırım lashed out like a religious fundamentalist.
Ergenekon
He was a protected witness in the Ergenekon investigation.
Verdict
On 5 August 2013 Arslan was sentenced to consecutive life sentences as part of the
Ergenekon trials
The Ergenekon trials were a series of high-profile trials which took place on 2008–2016 in Turkey in which 275 people, including military officers, journalists and opposition lawmakers, all alleged members of Ergenekon, a suspected secularist ...
.
Today's Zaman
''Today's Zaman'' (Zaman is Turkish for 'time' or 'age') was an English-language daily newspaper based in Turkey. Established on 17 January 2007, it was the English-language edition of the Turkish daily '' Zaman.'' ''Today's Zaman'' included dom ...