Police detain key ISIL militant in Istanbul
ISTANBUL
“Abu Hanzala,” code-named Halis Bayancuk, was detained and arrested several times previously. The latest detention on May 30 was carried out as a part of an investigation launched by the Sakarya Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Police detained Bayancuk after determining that he was in Istanbul and he was taken to Sakarya by anti-terror police.
Back in 2015, Bayancuk and his wife were arrested after police raided their home and seized a number of ISIL-linked documents, both digital and non-digital. He was released in March 2016.
He was once again detained in March 2017 after threatening personnel of the Istanbul Governor’s Office via a video broadcast online, after a meeting he had planned to attend was canceled by the authorities.
He had also been arrested in 2011 and 2014 for “being a member of al-Qaeda” and was released both times after serving a couple of months in jail.
Previous footage showed him threatening the Turkish authorities in a speech he made during a picnic in Istanbul’s Ömerli district.