Human smugglers vow not to help ‘serial killer’ flee Turkey

ISTANBUL

A human smuggler who contacted a live TV program on June 3 vowed they wouldn’t help a suspected serial killer escape Turkey. The police have been on high alert for Atalay Filiz, who is being sought internationally for the murder of three people and is on the run. 

“Someone from Çeşme [a district in the western province of İzmir] is calling us. Interesting. He is a person who illegally smuggles Syrians. ‘Don’t worry, we will never transport him [Filiz]. We even distributed his photos among each other to avoid smuggling him,’ he says,” the host of the show, Müge Anlı, said, as another guest on the show praised the smugglers by saying “bravo.”

When asked about their smuggling business by Anlı, the human smuggler, whose identity was kept secret, said they were “helping them,” which was followed by laughter. 

“At least give them life jackets,” said Anlı cheerfully. 

“You are great, thank you so much. Your job and this are different subjects,” she added, as the audience applauded. 

She then asked the price of getting on a boat, to which the smuggler gave a detailed account. 

“The passages are closed now. There is only passage to Italy from Çeşme and the price is very high for that. It is 6,000 euros. He [Filiz] can’t have that amount of money on him. Even if he does, he can’t ask any of us,” the smuggler said, adding that illegal passage to Greece costs between $600 and $700. 

The suspected murderer has been on the run for more than three years after he allegedly killed his childhood friend Göktuğ Demiraraslan, the son of Maj. Gen. Hasan Hüseyin Demiraraslan, and his Russian girlfriend, Elena Radchikova, on Sept. 16, 2013. 

While the motive behind the double murder remains unknown, recent reports claimed Filiz murdered the couple because they grew suspicious that Filiz was involved in the sudden disappearance of his girlfriend, Olga Seregina, who was friends with Radchikova. 

According to the latest allegations, Seregina was Filiz’s first murder and he committed the subsequent crimes in order to cover up his first killing, which he reportedly committed after the woman attempted to break up with him.

Filiz is also the suspect in the murder of a 40-year-old history teacher, Fatma Kayıkçı. 

While the entire country has been put on alert to find the suspected serial killer, police stated with certainty that Filiz was recently in Çeşme.