Indictment reveals new details on ex-nationalist leader murder

ANKARA

A senior police officer shared the address and other personal information of Sinan Ateş, former head of the ultra-nationalist group Gray Wolves with the instigator before his assassination, the indictment has revealed.

The incident occurred on Dec. 30, 2022, when Ateş, a faculty member at Hacettepe University, was fatally shot with five bullets by gunman Eray Özyağcı as he left his office in the capital Ankara's Çukurambar quarter.

The 145-page indictment stated that the three suspected shooters acted jointly and carried out the act, while the other two suspects were the instigators.

All suspects are responsible for the crime of “deliberate intentional killing” in the murder, the indictment said.

Using security resources, Mustafa Ensar Aykal, who served as a high-ranking police officer in the capital Ankara on the date of the incident, gave personal information such as Ateş's address, phone number and location to Tolgahan Demirbaş, one of the suspects who was the instigator of the murder.

The instigator, in turn, shared these with the people who would carry out the attack, the document said.

The prosecutor asked for aggravated life imprisonment for five defendants in a case involving 22 people.

Despite the passage of more than one year, the chief public prosecutor's office in Ankara has just completed the indictment, even with 22 suspects in custody, including three police officers.