Police says perpetrators of attack on Turkish media group head ‘related to criminal group’

ISTANBUL – Doğan News Agency

An armed attack on Murat Sancak, the chairman of the Star media outlet, on Aug. 20 was “related to a criminal group,” the Istanbul Police Department has said in a written statement. 

“In this regard, it has been determined that the people who conducted the assault were three people and were related to a criminal group in our province [Istanbul],” read the statement issued by the Istanbul Police Department on Oct. 17. 

One of the six suspects, identified only by the initials T.Ü., transferred to court in the case into the assault on Sancak, was arrested on Oct. 16 over “attempted voluntary manslaughter,” while the other five were released.

Turkey’s Doğan Group said Oct. 17, that Sancak’s accusations that the Doğan Group was also behind a recent armed attack targeting him were “irrational and pathetic.”

“We consider commenting on this irrational, remorseless and pathetic statement that mocks the average human intellect as a waste of time and do not take it seriously,” read the statement.

“We hand over Murat Sancak to Allah, but first to the supreme Turkish judiciary, and leave him alone with his own conflicts and dilemmas,” it added.

Sancak was caught in crossfire during an attack by armed gunmen on Aug. 20 along with his bodyguard and driver in Istanbul’s Hadımköy district at around 12:00 p.m. According to the police investigation, a total of 21 bullets hit their car, but Sancak and his bodyguards managed to survive the attack and no casualties were reported.