Two attackers of Hürriyet columnist Ahmet Hakan identified

Fırat Alkaç – ISTANBUL

HÜRRİYET photo

Two people have been identified in the case of an attack that targeted Hürriyet columnist Ahmet Hakan in 2015, according to a witness account.

Eyewitness Kübra Parmaksızoğlu Coşkun, who is the wife of Hakan’s brother, gave her testimony on Jan. 9 at the Istanbul 60th Criminal Court of First Instance, identifying two of the attackers in photographs.

“We live on the same street as Ahmet Hakan. The sounds of a quarrel came from outside at around 3 a.m. while I was in the living room. We looked outside the window and I saw that Ahmet’s car was there and there was another car behind it and three people were attacking Ahmet, his driver and a person with them. One of them strongly pushed Ahmet onto the car. We walked down around five minutes later and called the police. Ahmet’s face was bleeding and he was injured. We took him to hospital. I remember the face of the two attackers,” Coşkun said, identifying attackers Kamuran Ergin and Uğur Yaman.

The hearing was later adjourned until March 27 in which all seven suspects, including Ergin and Yaman, are currently being tried without arrest.

An Istanbul local court had initially ordered the arrest of one of the suspects, Ahmet Şengüler, but he was released in January 2016 in the first hearing. An earlier probation decision on the suspects was also lifted.

Hakan, a daily Hürriyet columnist and TV presenter, was attacked by four men on Oct. 1, 2015 in Istanbul’s Nişantaşı neighborhood as he was returning home after hosting a program on private broadcaster CNN Türk. 

The attack came nearly a month after Hürriyet headquarters were pelted with stones by protesters on Sept. 6, 2015. 

Less than 48 hours later, the building was attacked by another club-swinging, stone-pelting group.