Crime
Handan Sonel, wife of then Tunceli Governor Tuncay Sonel, was arrested
- Additionally, two more people were detained in Ankara as a result of the examination of Sonel's phone.
- With the arrest of a guard and an IT expert in the last wave, the number of suspects in prison increased to 15.
- 21-year-old Gülistan Doku disappeared in Tunceli on January 5, 2020.
Handan Sonel, wife of then Tunceli Governor Tuncay Sonel, was arrested in the investigation of Gülistan Doku, a university student who had been missing for six years. Handan Sonel was detained with 15 people, including 15 people, on July 22 and was arrested for 'destroying, concealing or altering criminal evidence'. Additionally, two more people were detained in Ankara as a result of the examination of Sonel's phone.
With the arrest of a guard and an IT expert in the last wave, the number of suspects in prison increased to 15. 21-year-old Gülistan Doku disappeared in Tunceli on January 5, 2020. The file was reconsidered with the appointment of a new prosecutor in June 2024.
Earlier in the investigation, 12 people, including the then governor Tuncay Sonel, his son Mustafa Türkay Sonel and chief physician Çağdaş Özdemir, were arrested. Doku's boyfriend, Zeinal Abakarov, and her mother and stepfather are also among those arrested. Dismissed police officer Gökhan Ertok was arrested on the charge of 'destroying evidence', and former Special Provincial Administration staff member Erdoğan Elaldı was arrested on the charge of 'deliberate murder'.
Umut Altaş, friend of Mustafa Türkay Sonel, who was wanted with a red notice, was detained in the USA in 2022. Doku's mobile phone last signaled at the Sarı Saltuk Viaduct in Uzunçayır Dam Lake, but no trace was found during searches. The family applied for the arrest of the suspects in January 2024.
Source, Murat Kocabas/SOPA Images/LightRocket/ It is now possible to follow the agenda from BBC Turkish on WhatsApp. Click to get our news directly to your phone. The wife of the then governor of Tunceli, Tuncay Sonel, was also arrested during the investigation into university student Gülistan Doku, who had been missing for six years. 15 people, including Handan Sonel, were detained on July 22.
It was noted that Handan Sonel, who was arrested, was detained "due to the statements of witnesses working in the governor's residence. Sonel was arrested by the criminal judgeship of peace on duty for "destroying, concealing or altering criminal evidence". In the last wave, with the arrest of a guard and an IT specialist, the number of suspects in prison increased to 15. Twenty-one-year-old Gülistan Doku from Diyarbakır was in Tunceli for her university education.
There was no news from him after January 5, 2020. After Ebru Cansu was appointed as Tunceli chief public prosecutor in June 2024, the file was reconsidered. Within the scope of the investigation, 12 people, including Tunceli Governor Tuncay Sonel, his son Mustafa Türkay Sonel and Tunceli State Hospital Chief Physician Çağdaş Özdemir, were arrested. Umut Altaş, a close friend of Mustafa Türkay Sonel, for whom a red notice was issued, was detained in the USA in 2022. There was no news from Gülistan Doku, a second-year student at the Department of Child Development at Munzur University, after she left the dormitory she was staying in on January 5, 2020. Gülistan's family, who lives in Diyarbakır, came to Tunceli on the day she disappeared and reported it to the security forces.
A search operation was initiated upon the notice of the family. As a result of the investigations, it was determined that Gülistan Doku's mobile phone last gave a signal at the Sarı Saltuk Viaduct on the Uzunçayır Dam Lake."
Source: BBC Türkçe, TRT Haber