Police informant within ISIL killed Turkish police officer: Report

ANKARA

A police informant within the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) reportedly killed a police officer in 2016 in the southeastern Turkish province of Gaziantep.

Police officer Hüseyin Gümüş was killed on July 13, 2016 and media reports at the time said he was shot in the head during a raid on an ISIL cell house.

However, recently revealed information reportedly showed that Gümüş was killed by a 17-year-old police informant Hanifi Çelik, who said he killed the police officer within the intelligence unit upon orders from the jihadist group, daily Evrensel reported.

An ISIL suspect under arrest previously said during a court hearing that he met three police officers before the Oct. 10, 2015 Ankara attack, but refrained from naming all three of them.

Suphi Alpfidan, who is being tried in the case into the attack that killed more than 100 people, reportedly identified two of the police officers but claimed to have forgotten the name of the third.

According to the files recently received by Ankara Fourth Heavy Penal Court, the name of the third police officer was revealed as Hüseyin Gümüş, who is believed to have been killed during an operation.

However, after the emergence of the new files, an indictment was prepared to shed light on how Gümüş was actually killed and a complaint was filed in the Gaziantep Second Heavy Penal Court.

The informant Çelik’s testimony was also included in the indictment, which has 14 suspects.

In his testimony, Çelik, who was described in the indictment as a “juvenile pushed into crime,” reportedly confessed to accepting the police’s offer to become an informant and to kill Gümüş.

During a hearing of the case into Gümüş’s death on April 27, Çelik described how he became an informant.

“My mother, father and four siblings were living in ISIL-controlled Raqqa for around three-and-a-half years. I don’t know why they went. I was previously detained by police over being an ISIL militant but was released. I’ve never been to Syria.

After my first detention, the police’s anti-terror branch wanted to use me as an informant and I accepted,” Çelik reportedly told the court at the time, adding that ISIL learned about him being an informant a while later.

Çelik said he was sending rent money to his family in Syria via a Turkish ISIL militant, identified only as Zubeyr, and was obtaining insider information on the jihadist group during the transactions until ISIL learned about his intentions.

According to Çelik, his coordination with police was revealed to ISIL by Abdulsamet Cebael, who was also previously detained along with Çelik and was later released.

Cebael fled to Syria after being released and told Zubeyr about Çelik’s role, Çelik also said, adding that he received a phone call from Zubeyr a short while later.

“Zubeyr gave me the name of Gümüş and told me to kill him. He threatened to kill my family if I didn’t kill the police officer,” he said, adding that he obtained the weapon used in the murder from a man identified as “Fatih,” as well as a hand grenade.

Saying ISIL asked him to set up a bomb trap to kill Gümüş, Çelik noted that he was unable to do it.

“I called the police officer to my house and killed him. Then I escaped from the roof and headed to [the southern province of] Hatay, where police caught me. I killed him because ISIL threatened me. I regret what I did,” he added.

In another hearing of the case on June 22, a police officer who was at the scene on the day of the murder gave his testimony as witness, confirming that Çelik was working for the police.

“At the time of the incident, Hüseyin went to Çelik’s house to receive information. I was 25 to 30 meters away from the house and waiting. I didn’t hear any gunshots or knew about anything.

When Hüseyin was late, I called him and when he didn’t pick up I notified the police headquarters to let them know about our location,” the witness, whose identity wasn’t disclosed, said, adding that he saw Çelik escaping but was unable to stop him.

Furthermore, during the hearing of the case into ISIL attack in Ankara on Nov. 22, one of the police officers whose name was given by Alpfidan also confirmed that Çelik was working as an informant.

Another police officer who Alpfidan said he met before the attack said his unit carried out the investigation into Gümüş’s death, but gave unclear answers to questions at the same hearing.

On Aug. 13, a police officer was stabbed to death in Istanbul by a suspected ISIL militant, who had been detained for planning a suicide attack. The attacker was then shot dead by police.