Uncertainty continues over the killing of journalist, documentary filmmaker and environmental activist Hakan Tosun, who was beaten to death in Esenyurt.
The fact that Tosun’s family was not informed for 27 hours, that the fate of his personal belongings remained unexplained by the police for 5 days, that two attackers were not taken into custody but were instead invited to the police station to give statements, and that the clearest camera footage of the attack was retrieved by the father of one of the suspects, only for the footage to be allegedly “blank”, have deepened suspicions surrounding the case.
The question of why Hakan Tosun was killed still remains unanswered, and new scandals continue to emerge in the case file day by day. Onur Cingil, one of the Tosun family’s lawyers, spoke to ANF about the progress of the investigation and revealed that Yusuf Özakdağ, the third perpetrator who participated in the attack by driving the motorcycle, was released after his statement was taken not as a suspect but merely as a witness.
Verbally and physically assaulted on the pavement
On the night of 10 October leading into 11 October, journalist, documentary filmmaker and environmental activist Hakan Tosun was beaten to death by two men while on his way to his mother’s home in the Mehmet Akif Ersoy neighbourhood in the Esenyurt district.
In the fragmented and incomplete footage of the attack released by the police to the press, it is seen that Tosun, who had walked from the Güzelyurt Metrobus stop to a street in the Mehmet Akif Ersoy neighbourhood, sat down on the pavement. There, 18-year-old suspect Abdurrahman Murat, who resides in the neighbourhood, first verbally harasses him and then assaults him with kicks and punches. As a result of the blows he receives, Tosun falls backwards from where he is sitting on the pavement.
In the second footage, Tosun is seen getting up from the pavement, holding his head and staggering away. When he notices that suspect Murat is approaching from behind on a motorcycle, Tosun gestures with his hand towards the opposite apartment building as if asking for help. Tosun is assaulted again by Murat, who gets off the motorcycle, and he collapses to the ground. From the footage, which was filmed from a distance, it is not clear whether Murat is holding an object in his hand or not. While Tosun is lying on the ground, a black BMW arrives at the scene. Tosun is first kicked by 24-year-old suspect Adnan Şahin, who gets out of the vehicle, and then lifted and slammed to the ground. After receiving consecutive blows to his head, Tosun loses consciousness and remains lying motionless in front of the entrance of building number 18 on 1824th Street.
Eyewitness and official accounts differ on ambulance response time
According to an eyewitness, the ambulance and police arrived at the scene one hour later, while information provided to the Tosun family’s lawyers states that they arrived 15–20 minutes after the attack. Tosun was taken to Başakşehir Çam and Sakura Hospital, where it was revealed that he had suffered a brain haemorrhage as a result of the assault. Instead of being admitted to the intensive care unit, he was kept in the emergency intensive care section of the hospital for two and a half hours. It remains unknown whether any medical intervention was performed on Tosun during those two and a half hours.
ID and press card are missing
Although the lack of information provided to Hakan Tosun’s family for 27 hours was officially justified by claiming that his identity could not be confirmed, it later emerged that Tosun’s belongings had been collected by the police who arrived at the scene after the attack. The family learned from a police officer who called them five days later that the belongings were at the Esenyurt Mevlana Police Station. The family draws attention to the fact that Tosun’s belongings, which were also delivered late to the prosecutor’s office, did not include his identification card or his press card.
Footage contradicts the statements of the suspects
While the family and friends of Hakan Tosun, whose brain death had occurred, continued their vigil at the hospital where he was kept on life support as a last hope, the lawyers learned that suspects Abdurrahman Murat and Adnan Şahin had not been taken into custody but were instead summoned to Esenyurt Mevlana Police Station, where Tosun’s belongings had been kept secretly to give statements. Although the two attackers claimed in their statements that Hakan Tosun was drunk, that he insulted and attacked them, and that he sat down with his trousers pulled halfway down, the footage shows that all of these claims are false. While the two suspects were hastily arrested on charges of “intentional injury”, it emerged that a man named Yusuf Özakdağ, who drove the motorcycle during the attack, had his statement taken as a witness and was released under judicial control. In his testimony, Özakdağ repeated allegations similar to those made by the two suspects and claimed that the person who assaulted Tosun on the pavement with kicks and punches was the individual who got out of the black BMW, and that he did not know this person.
Police claim riding the motorcycle during the attack does not count as active involvement
Tosun family lawyer Onur Cingil stressed that it is unacceptable that the statement of Yusuf Özakdağ was taken not as a suspect but as a witness, noting that although Özakdağ did not physically assault Hakan Tosun, he nevertheless participated in the attack. Cingil pointed out that despite this, Özakdağ’s statement was taken on 11 October at Esenyurt Mevlana Police Station as a witness and said: “The police justified taking Özakdağ’s statement as a witness by claiming that he did not take part in an ‘active act’. In my opinion this is a false interpretation. Özakdağ may not have carried out a physical act himself, but he transported one of the suspects on his motorcycle to where Hakan Tosun was. In other words, he is in the position of a joint perpetrator. The legal definition of this is participation, aiding and abetting a crime. On Friday we filed a request with the prosecutor handling the case for the arrest of Yusuf Özakdağ. However, we do not yet know whether any action has been taken regarding him.”
The indictment must be prepared for intentional murder
Cingil stated that not only summoning the suspects to the police station instead of taking them into custody was wrong, but also launching the investigation on the charge of “intentional injury” was unacceptable. He said: “They opened the case as intentional injury. The statements were also taken on that basis. At that time, Hakan was fighting for his life, but this cannot be defined as intentional injury. It should have been classified as attempted intentional murder. Now we will work to ensure that this charge is changed in the indictment and that it is prepared as intentional murder.”