Abdullah Baybaşin (born 1960) is a Kurdish drug trafficker and

crime boss A crime boss, also known as a crime lord, mafia don, mob boss, kingpin, or godfather is the leader of a criminal organization. Description A crime boss has absolute or nearly absolute control over the other members of the organization and is ...

, the current head of the Baybaşin family. Following the imprisonment of his brother Hüseyin Baybaşin in 2002, he actively engaged in drug trafficking. He was imprisoned in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

in 2006 and released in 2011 and as of 2012, he has returned to

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

permanently.

Life

Abdullah Baybaşin was born into a poor Kurdish farmer family in

Lice Louse (: lice) is the common name for any member of the infraorder Phthiraptera, which contains nearly 5,000 species of wingless parasitic insects. Phthiraptera was previously recognized as an order, until a 2021 genetic study determined th ...

, Diyarbakır, Turkey in 1960. He has brothers named Mahmut, Hüseyin, and Mehmet. In his own words, he was quiet and asocial as a child and liked to spend time alone. Due to the Turkish coup d'état in 1980, he and three Baybaşin members of his family emigrated to

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. In 1984, he married Dicle Pırpırok, a fellow countrywoman, and from this marriage his only child, Çağdaş Baybaşin (born 1985), was born. According to his own testimony, he had a disabling accident in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

in 1986 and was confined to a

wheelchair A wheelchair is a mobilized form of chair using two or more wheels, a footrest, and an armrest usually cushioned. It is used when walking is difficult or impossible to do due to illnesses, injury, disabilities, or age-related health conditio ...

. However, according to the media, his disability was caused by an assassination attempt in a bar in England or the Netherlands.

Crime bossing and prosecution

In 1998, Baybaşin took over drugs and arms trafficking in the

as the successor of his elder brother Hüseyin Baybaşin, who was arrested in Operation Black Tulip and imprisoned in 2002. In 2006, he was convicted of heroin trafficking and sentenced to 22 years in prison. The

Court of Appeal An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to Hearing (law), hear a Legal case, case upon appeal from a trial court or other ...

in England ordered a retrial on the drugs charge in 2010 after determining that the judge's summing up of the evidence at the trial was unfair. On 22 October 2010, at a retrial, a judge at Woolwich Crown Court in London ordered the jury to find Baybaşin not guilty on the grounds that the conviction could not be supported due to insufficient prosecution evidence. Judge Charles Byers said there was no

direct evidence In law, a body of facts that directly supports the truth of an assertion without intervening inference. It is often exemplified by eyewitness testimony, which consists of a witness's description of their reputed direct sensory experience of an ...

that Baybaşin was involved in a conspiracy to supply heroin and there was little

circumstantial evidence Circumstantial evidence is evidence that relies on an inference to connect it to a conclusion of fact, such as a fingerprint at the scene of a crime. By contrast, direct evidence supports the truth of an assertion directly, i.e., without need ...

. On 8 November 2010, compensation was ordered to be paid to Baybaşin in the amount of £20,000 by the Prison Service. The

Ministry of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

acknowledged that Baybaşin, who uses a wheelchair, had been subjected to degrading treatment and discrimination because of his disability while in

HM Prison Belmarsh His Majesty's Prison Belmarsh is a Category A men's prison located in Thamesmead, south-east London, England. Belmarsh Prison is run by His Majesty's Prison Service and is situated next to HMP Isis and HMP Thameside. The prison is used for ...

in London. After hearing the Ministry's decision, Baybaşin said: "The treatment I received there (in prison) was very humiliating and at times I found it difficult to cope. I thought I would die in prison and often thought things would never get better."

References

Works cited

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Baybasin, Abdullah 1960 births 21st-century Kurdish people Living people People from Lice, Turkey Turkish people of Kurdish descent Kurdish drug traffickers